Postcards from Europe submission (2011)
Alice Pattullo Brighton, UK
Tell us about your piece. I chose to produce a postcard about where I was brought up: Jesmond in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I lived in the same house for the whole of my childhood and my parents still live there now, but are thinking of moving, after 24 years, to the country. Recently I have been reflecting a lot about my memories from around the neighbourhood, and things that I will miss if they leave. As we have a city garden, when I was little, my mum used to walk me through the local graveyard on the way to our allotment. I would be her scribe as she read out the epitaphs that she found most interesting, or which had the most resonance with the piece of work she was working on as a textile artist. I guess 20
I wanted to illustrate something about Jesmond that I knew would be a unique experience to myself and might show an area of the neighbourhood that might be overlooked. How do you usually approach a brief? I usually approach a brief with books and a big coffee! I love researching a project or a theme and tend to research lots of different threads until I find an aspect that excites me most. Then I will collect imagery from old books and from the internet, and start producing elements in my sketchbook that come to mind surrounding the topic. For a screen-print or an illustration I might do a sketch for the composition, or I’ll just scan in