Story
Project 1
Story’s Project 1 was created in response to the starting point ‘Reflection’. She began by exploring the theme quite literally, photographing people’s reflections in mirrors and using these images as the basis for a series of two-dimensional artworks. As the project developed, Story began to consider the idea of reflection in a more personal and conceptual way, exploring how an artwork could act as a reflection of an individual. She experimented with different imagery, materials and processes to create work that reflected aspects of her own personality and identity. Story then turned her attention to the mirrors themselves, experimenting with breaking them into fragments and using the distorted reflections within the broken shapes to create more experimental photographic compositions. A CreatEd workshop with visiting artist Paul Bransford encouraged her to adopt a more expressive approach to drawing and painting. She ultimately combined these expressive techniques with her photography, before taking the project beyond the two-dimensional surface and developing her ideas into three-dimensional sculptural work.
“I took inspiration from a workshop with artist Paul Bradford. He inspired me to create pieces that are abstract, bold and different. He exposed me to acrylic painting, mark making with charcoal and use of colour and texture. I took the lessons I learnt from him and developed this into my project. He gave me confidence to be bold”
Project 2
Story’s Project 2 was created in response to the starting point ‘Layers’. She approached the theme by exploring hierarchy and the complex layers that exist within society. Her investigation considered not only social structures within the human population, such as lower, middle and upper classes, but also the wider forces that influence and shape society, including nature, government and artificial intelligence. Story experimented with a broad range of media and processes, considering how different materials could be used to represent the qualities and significance of each individual layer. Her explorations included collage, painting, drawing and printmaking, allowing her to investigate both visual and symbolic ways of communicating her ideas. She ultimately refined and combined these experiments into a large-scale mixed-media final piece depicting the different layers and their relationships with one another, presenting AI and nature as the most powerful and dominant forces within the hierarchy.
“I was drawn to explore layers in a more alternative way. I am interested in exploring real world issues through my art along with more literal layers and have focussed on the layers of power in society through the word hierarchy”
