Saturday 4 February 2012

Off The Wall

Rosie Hobbs
Fab Fabric Art


We caught up with Rosie while she was installing her month long show at the Alley Cafe.
And here's what she had to say...

RDC: Tell us where you're from Rosie?

Originally
I’m from Portsmouth, but I moved up here to Nottingham in 2003 for University and then didn’t leave!

 
RDC: What media do you use and what have you experimented with in the past?
 
Predominantly, as an independent artist I work with textiles, working with embroidery, appliqué, batik and other constructive textiles. I also crochet a lot and knit! I usually start with drawing though, and the work kind of takes its own direction in terms of media form there.I work as a community artist across lots of different media though, from painting and drawing to puppet making. Textiles is my personal passion though.




RDC: Are you self-taught?

Half and half really. I went to Art College, and did Theatre Design at Uni and picked up some skills like pattern cutting and using industrial sewing machines, however most of what I do I have learnt as I have gone along. I get really excited about trying new things – I just decide what I want to do next and go and find out how to do it!


RDC: Where does the inspiration for your work come from and does living in Nottingham help with that?


It’s quite an eclectic mix really. I’m inspired by the arts and crafts movement – and the idea of master crafts person, textiles from history, and from around the world. I’m looking a lot at Eastern European Folk textiles at the moment. I like anything that you can touch, and generally I work in quite a multi sensory way.
I love colour, I have a funny synaesthesia thing where I can smell and feel colour so that has quite a strong influence on my work. I’ve only just worked out that not everyone does this, so I’m in the process of exploring that in my work at the moment. Nottingham is great for the arts I think. There’s always a lot going on to get involved in and exhibit at. I am one of the artists that works on Nottingham Light Night every year, both as an independent and a community artist. The textiles history to Nottingham is really interesting, and a series of lanterns I made for Light Night 2010 was based on old Nottingham lace designs.

 
RDC: What is your affiliation with the Alley Cafe and what impact do you think they have on the local arts scene?

I have been coming to the Alley Cafe since I was at Uni, and have got to know the lovely staff over the years. It’s such a lovely, welcoming venue and you’re always guaranteed great food and company. They are really up for new ideas, and they put a lot of positive energy into making the cafe a creative, energetic space. The opportunity to exhibit your work there for a month is great. It can be hard to find exhibitions which allow you to put up a series of work, so this is an opportunity to do so and see how people respond to it.
I also run a group there on a Wednesday night from 7-9 where people can learn to knit and crochet. It is an extension of a community project which I am working on to do yarn bomb in market square next year, and the owners were really proactive in helping me to set the group up there.




RDC: Your ideal mode of transport would be?

The pea car from the Birdseye adverts about frozen peas! Although I do already have a beautiful purple Nissan Micra called Peggy Sue who is pretty ideal!

 
RDC: Ha ha, nice one!


RDC: Have you got any more shows coming up?


On June the 19
th I’m going to be doing a yarn bomb in Market Square for the Cultural Olympiad. I’ve worked with over 300 people from Nottingham collecting their crochet and teaching them how to do it to cover as much of the square as I can! The work I’m showing at the cafe is a relatively new series, so I’m currently looking for exhibitions to apply for that might fit, but also exploring ways in which I can develop it before I exhibit it again.

RDC: Thank you so much Rosie, it was great to meet up.

You can find her work on sale at the Alley Cafe till the end of February 2012.

More from Rosie H... http://www.rosie-hobbs-arts.co.uk/home
Alley Cafe Bar Nottingham... http://www.alleycafe.co.uk/

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