Quintesse Degree show catalogue 2024

Hanfod Quintesse Sioe Radd Degree Show

24

Welcome to WREXHAM SCHOOL OF ARTS

Degree show 2024

Professor Alec Shepley ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF ART AND SOCIETY FACULTY OF ARTS, COMPUTING & ENGINEERING Wrexham University

Welcome to the Wrexham School of Art Summer Exhibition 2024!

We have decided to do something different this year and bring the exhibitions from each of our courses, out of the Art School and into the city of Wrexham! Bringing art to the public is not a new idea of course, indeed Oriel Wrecsam (now Ty Pawb) operated a very successful Offsite Programme over an extended period of time, which introduced diverse creative practices to new audiences This is also the aim for our Summer Exhibition – to share and showcase the marvelous talents of our brilliant graduating students, to a wider audience and to play a part in weaving the cultural fabric of Wrexham.

Goethe once said we ‘ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture’ – I agree! and in our own way, that is what we are trying to do with our show at Eagles Meadow so please do enjoy!

Finally, please feel welcome to reciprocate and come to the School of Art on Regent Street to enjoy the exhibition programme at Oriel Gosod/Insert Gallery, have a coffee in the foyer coffee shop and browse the art shop.

Degree Show is kindly supported by

Animation

Olivia Ashcroft

BA(HONS) ANIMATION Olivia is an animator with an interest in concept art and character design, which they particularly enjoy because it allows them to delve into creating their own unique designs and worlds without limitations.

Olivia’s work is primarily digital with the occasional few sketches in pencil. The use of a digital medium let’s Olivia experiment with a range of colours to most effectively influence the

perception of their characters, allowing them to stand out in distinct ways.

Art initially served as a form of escape for Olivia from the stresses of school and life. As they continued to create and experiment with art, their passion grew, evolving from a hobby into a career aspiration.

Now, Olivia sees art as a pathway to crafting original stories and characters professionally.

Applied Art

Liane Gregory Roberts BA(HONS) APPLIED ART

Drawing inspiration from Celtic aesthetics, Liane’s art jewellery delves into the narratives of the natural world. Through walks in Welsh landscapes, Liane gathers materials like reclaimed metals, branches, twigs, seaweed and other natural miscellany, to inform her creative process.

Her work reflects on the interconnectedness of life.

Each piece embodies the balance between growth and decay, symbolizing the struggle for survival. Liane’s practice uses traditional silversmithing

using reclaimed metal wire, alongside jewellery techniques such as enameling. She has also explored alternative surface treatments with this body of work, incorporating a strong colour palette, to complement the subdued metal surfaces.

Her work alludes to the shapes and forms created by found materials such as tangled seaweed and interwoven branches, among other complex layers found in and around the Welsh landscape of her home.

Catherine January BA(HONS) APPLIED ART

Catherine hand builds with clay, using moulds and formers. She employs a variety of techniques to then add surface decoration to the clay. She combines ceramic pieces with her hand processed yarn, textiles, wire and found objects to make simple bowls which embody both nurturing and hostile environments.

Her work is eclectic and inspired by places, people, life experiences and found objects

whose appearance hints at an interesting past life.

The physical process of making is important to Catherine; she wants to enjoy the task and be lost in the joy of creating something with her hands, seeking either comfort or challenge from the materials she chooses . She reuses materials whenever she can.

Lastly, Catherine is fascinated by buttons, and they appear often in her work.

Rena Kalandrani BA(HONS) APPLIED ART

Rena’s work cherishes life’s smaller moments—a walk on the beach with family or a long awaited catch-up with an old friend—morphing them into wearable memories.

In her ‘Hag stone’ ring collection, Rena embraces a hands-on approach, meticulously hand-carving each intricate design in wax before casting it into metal - using the traditional technique of lost wax

casting. She then integrates other materials with the metal, working with hand-collected minerals and crystals procured during her adventures across the UK and Europe.

Every piece narrates a unique tale, inviting wearers to capture the essence of the moment to carry forward.

Maureen Ward

BA(HONS) APPLIED ART

Since childhood living on the coast of Suffolk I have always had a keen interest in creative arts and craft, however my career path took me away from this interest working predominately in finance. My creative side continued encouraging my children to explore and have fun in and around the subject of art. In my later years once my family had flown the nest I decided to take this interest more seriously and embarked on a part-time degree

course at Wrexham University.

The media of clay is my passion, together with my love of the both the countryside and seaside has inspired me to create forms based on nature. I currently live in Wrexham with a holiday home on Anglesey which allows me to continue to maintain my connection with the coast providing an abundance of inspiration. The hope is my love of these forms will bring joy to others.

Darina Zhecheva BA(HONS) APPLIED ART

For Darina, each piece serves as an intimate exploration of her inner world, a visual language narrating the complexity of personal growth and experiences.

Darina utilizes traditional silversmithing techniques such as fold-form and forging.

Working in copper and silver, her forms and surfaces embody a dance of textures and hues. The malleability of these materials allows her to sculpt dynamic shapes. Every fold and curve tells a story of resilience and transformation,

echoing the twists and turns of life’s journey. The choice of materials is deliberate, as copper’s warmth and silver`s glow mirror the emotions she seeks to share.

She invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the tactile world of her creations, feeling the smooth curves, tracing the sharp edges, and discovering the hidden depths within. Each piece is a testament to the interconnectedness of all things, a reflection of our shared human experience and the beauty found in life’s intricate details.

Fine Art

Boobah

BA(HONS) FINE ART

My current work explores how I might alter the appearance of animals to seem like they are from an alien planet. I have created images of how animals look in their natural environment and how they interact with “humans”. Questions remain around whether some of the animals present in the work could be extinct. I have used bright colours in this series of paintings to represent animals

that are recognisable from our planet and yet sufficiently altered to suggest they might be alien.

I have juxtaposed contrasting materials and methods of application to create a range of visual scenarios recognisable as a world that is both familiar enough for us to relate to, and yet different enough to suggest a place where humans and animals have found better ways to coexist.

Mia Clark

BA(HONS) FINE ART MIAANNEART

My work explores the relationship between my visceral response to different materials and substances and their potential to evoke the physical properties of the human body, employing a range of materials to express the tactile reality of the organs that form us. I became interested in anatomy, specifically how the heart and blood work together as a functioning system. My Nans recent passing through heart failure brought home to me the fragility and unpredictability of life and also the relevance of what I am exploring in my work to all of us, having ‘the human

body’ in common, something we seldom consider unless provoked. Delving into the inner workings of the body through experimentation with both texture and scale, I create a representation of our bodies in the rawest form, manipulating the viewers perspective through enhancing seemingly minor yet indispensable organs and tissue, magnifying their detail to emphasize the importance of their presence. Including intricate detail in certain areas enables me to simultaneously emphasize the complexity and fragility of the body.

Erin Forbes-Buthlay BA(HONS) FINE ART

My practice revolves around the organic creation of marks arrived at through a dynamic interaction of movement and material. I am interested in how pure abstraction allows the materials to communicate my intentions directly through their journey across the canvas. My choice of material, and the use of water are interdependent.

My practice focuses on action, and reaction. The movement used to encourage marks on

the canvas, is visible in the impressions it creates and is an autobiographical creation. I am influenced by the fluidity of dance, and the choreographed visual language it generates. The dance-like gestures visible in my paintings allude to the action painting of the 1940’s to 1960’s.

Material interactions symbolize a battle on the surface, like a group of dancers all trying to be at the centre of the stage.

Leah Foulkes

BA(HONS) FINE ART I have always been fascinated by architecture and travelling to new places to appreciate it. This interest extends to the appreciation of the derelict, dilapidated and decayed.

The contrasting properties of materials found within the urban landscape have informed the development of my current sculptural language.

I often use materials and objects taken directly from the built environment without changing too many of their found characteristics in the construction process.

The work I am creating has steadily become more abstract, more about the formal qualities of the materials themselves and how I can disrupt or enhance these qualities. My studio time is spent testing the limits of materials and exploring the ways to manipulate them into new forms or combine them in unexpected ways. Space, form and material are all things I consider when the pieces are made, and I am informed by the space they will occupy and how the forms I create will challenge that space.

Eloise Hawes

BA(HONS) FINE ART HAWESART/

Born and raised in Wrexham, I take my inspiration from the urban architectural environment. I use images of often overlooked everyday buildings and turn them into colourful collages and mixed media paintings. By using such ordinary things I create series’ of works, usually containing a disproportionate number of windows and doors. I try to create evocations of the built environment through the amalgamation of appropriated architectural elements.

By fragmenting and then fusing elements drawn from different buildings I have photographed I create constructs that can be interpreted by the viewer in all kinds of different ways. Taking inspiration from artists Wayne Thiebaud and Amy Sillaman for both their sense of structure and use of colourful underpainting, I exaggerate the original colours of my source material to heighten their expressive power.

Sally Ann Jones BA(HONS) FINE ART

Growing up exploring the incredibly beautiful countryside of Snowdonia (Eryri) my senses were always overloaded with emotions. I frequently felt the urge to express how my home in Wales affected me in fear I would explode by merely standing within it. My Grandfather was a war photographer, so initially I tried to capture it in photographs, however the static images were not able to capture the emotions held within the stunning yet hostile vistas.

My art, over the last few years, are

my depictions of the landscapes I have experienced, my present pieces are my interpretations of the waters within them and my aim is to ensure each viewer shares an experience and not just a picture.

I employ light, movement, vivid colours and layers of sympathetic materials within my pieces, to evoke the physical properties of the currents, reflections and fluidity of the water, ensuring they are never still.

BA(HONS) FINE ART My practice is a labour of love, and I see the creative process as a journey to be experienced rather than just focusing on the final destination. For this reason works don’t often survive as static, finished pieces, executed and completed but as elements to be reclaimed and repurposed, becoming part of something else when the time is right, allowing them to speak in different ways

and have a different impact within a new context. The resulting works that make it to exhibition are like a body that has been dissected over time but is still surviving, wonderful, beautiful in so many different ways. The surfaces that emerge are often like skin, carrying traces of the experiences that marked it, the beautiful horrific scene that brought it into being.

Graphic Design

Rhiannon Hayes

BA(HONS) GRAPHIC DESIGN Art has the ability to communicate and has changed the way I see and decipher the world. Throughout my time at Wrexham University I found my passion for rebranding and establishing brand identities.

I was able to demonstrate my problem solving skills and showcase my ability to identify

issues and rectify those. Within my art work I try to consider the environment to the best of my ability, this effort reflects in my design choices throughout all my work. Through my art, I invite you to visually explore the world as seen through my eyes, yet open to interpretation through your own perspective.

Benjamin McIntosh BA(HONS) GRAPHIC DESIGN

As a graphic design student, I am inspired by bold branding and advertising graphics with the use of strong colour and typography, and how the relationship between those aspects work together to create the successful advertisements.

My work has been developed and created with aspects of typography, colour, and branding.

Generally working with digital media, I tend to experiment with bold colours to work with the typography.

Amy Spencer

BA(HONS) GRAPHIC DESIGN IDKAMYDOESDESIGN AMY-SPENCER AMYARTANDDESIGN

Passionate about the colourful harmonies with colour and form, Amy uses a bold, modernyet-retro aesthetic style into my branding, advertising, and packaging designs. Drawing inspiration from the simplicity of Bauhaus and the precision of Swiss design, Amy weaves in an original grunge twist, creating a fresh visual language that sets my work apart. Typography is the tool of choice for enhancing emotions and the narrative of her designs, allowing her to communicate more effectively with the audience.

Amy’s recent internship experience has been useful in expanding her perspective, offering her invaluable insights and practical skills that has enriched personal career growth. Eager to delve deeper into the world of graphic design she continually seeks out innovative designs that defy the conventional designs in style.

This interest feeds her ambition to pursue a career in graphic design, where Amy can continue to explore, experiment, and evolve, pushing boundaries and redefining norms.

Ziying Zhang

BA(HONS) GRAPHIC DESIGN As a design student, I possess a wide range of skills in graphic design, spanning from digital design and design language to creative thinking and typography, as well as illustration.

One of my most fulfilling projects was the cultural design for Goguryeo. I crafted various products, including disposable paper cups, pillows, and gift boxes. This hands-on experience served as a valuable lesson,

allowing me to apply my theoretical knowledge to practical design projects effectively.

Driven by my passion and dedication, I am confident in delivering satisfactory results.

Upon graduation, I aspire to work in areas such as illustration design, graphic design, and creating promotional materials like brand posters and brochures for businesses.

Illustration

Debbie Godbold

BA(HONS) CHILDREN’S PUBLISHING CURIOUSER_AND_CURIOUSERDG DEBBIEGODBOLDCHILDRENSPUBLISHING. MYPORTFOLIO.COM

Storytelling through picture books provides a wonderful forum in which to experience connection, engage with curiosity and explore creativity. A lifetime of working with young people has highlighted to me the intrinsic value of reading books together. As an author /illustrator of children’s books I enjoy the challenges and complexities in combining words with pictures and seek to create the ideal collaboration in order to elevate the reader’s experience. I strive for an immersive experience in

a variety of media to assist in creating mood through colour, texture and pattern, and use energetic linework for character development, creating animals as protagonists as a forum to help explore our emotions, along with rhythmic storytelling to create poetic flow.

I see myself as a creator and a facilitator in the promotion of reading and wish to provide opportunities for as many children as possible to experience the wonder of picture books.

Tiffany Michaels BA(HONS) COMICS

Tiffany Michaels is a comic and illustration artist, who primarily works with digital mediums. They have found inspiration primarily from Manga, Anime and East Asian dramas and fantasy, whilst growing up they have always been drawn to these particular stylisations and stories which has influenced their creative journey.

The art in which Tiffany creates is supposed to be fun and enjoyable to look at and absorb, within a stylisation that is overall

considered sweet or cute. The message is simple, as its art that should be enjoyed simply.

The career paths in which Tiffany would like to pursue is freelance illustrator and comic artist, as this is where their passion lays and creatively what they’re most curious and interested in exploring more avenues.

Tiffany has already began to design things such as badges and stickers.

Connor Edwards BA(HONS) ILLUSTRATION

I’m a level 6 illustration student looking to enter a tattoo apprenticeship when I leave Wrexham university. I get my inspiration from anything strange and fun, alongside a love for music and anything vintage. I have an extended diploma in 3D design and this often bleeds through in most of my projects, whether its crafting models of my illustrations or drawing on objects not typically drawn on, I think this led to my fascination with tattoos.

Haoran Liu

BA(HONS) ILLUSTRATION As an illustration student, I really enjoy creating illustrations that capture unique life forces and convey underlying meanings.

While I often adopt a technical approach in my art, I occasionally use traditional painting methods as well.

In my recent illustrations, the butterfly is used as the main subject, forming a series of intricate patterns. I’m really

proud of these pieces as I feel they push boundaries and offer something fresh.

Most of my work can be described as simple yet distinctive. I enjoy using textured brushes to maintain the richness and depth of the illustrations. My painting style is quite versatile, and I’m always keen to explore new painting techniques.

Photography & Film

Marnie Brown

BA(HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

Painscapes Marnie is a fine art photographer whose work fuses together her passions for cinema, sculptor and her exploration of human emotion. Her artistic practice is led by her experiences of mental health struggles, chronic pain, and the challenges of motherhood, Marnie’s work serves as therapy and selfexpression, shedding light on themes of resilience, vulnerability, and beauty amidst adversity.

“Painscapes” is the exploration of her journey from a life-altering accident in 2006, to the present focusing on trauma, disability, and resilience. Chronic pain and the accident’s aftermath are symbolized by meticulously

crafted wire figure sculptures representing different stages of her journey.

Marnie employs various photographic techniques, to create immersive visual narratives with an emphasis on capturing moments in-camera.

Through this methodology Marnie aims for authenticity by minimizing the reliance on post-processing manipulation, bridging the gap between personal experience and universal truths, offering glimpses into the human condition and inspiring hope and resilience in others facing similar challenges.

Rob Kirman

BA(HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

Pete My name is Rob, and I am a documentary photographer. I am driven by a profound fascination for capturing the authentic realities of people’s lives and experiences, to shed light on the stories of marginalised communities, amplifying their voices with empathy and validity.

I meticulously craft images in an attempt to capture a genuine essence of my subjects and their environments.

My Degree Show Project, entitled ‘Pete’, is testament to this approach. It is inspired

by a remarkable individual I encountered during a previous project. Pete’s indomitable spirit and joyful disposition, despite facing physical challenges, has left a lasting impression. Through Pete’s story, I aim to celebrate his resilience and showcase his talents, particularly in tractor renovation, while highlighting his infectious positivity that inspires all who know him. Pete’s journey serves as a powerful reminder of the human spirit’s triumph and the boundless possibilities that arise when

one confronts challenges with strength and courage.

Ultimately, I strive for my audience to experience empathy, understanding, and recognition, both with and for Pete, and the wider community of people living with disabilities. Further, to foster meaningful dialogue about social justice and equality.

In continuing this journey, I am fuelled by a steadfast belief in the transformative power of documentary photography to amplify marginalised voices and affect positive change in society.

Cassidy McGhie

BA(HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

Millenary In my journey as a photographer, I’ve embraced a dynamic evolution of style, navigating through various techniques and genres until discovering an unexpected niche. Portraiture and editorial photography have emerged as my focal points, drawing me in with their expansive possibilities and individualistic expressions. No two artists share identical styles or methods; each crafts their own distinctive approach.

Drawing inspiration from

diverse sources like 2000s media, advertising, skateboarding culture, music, and fashion photography, I weave together elements to create a distinct visual narrative. It’s the interplay between these influences that captivates me, manifesting in an otherworldly and ethereal aesthetic. Techniques such as the use of fisheye lenses, experimental lighting, and cross-processing become the aesthetic to deliver this visual language.

Grace Wood

BA(HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

Cynefin Growing up I was surrounded by the breath-taking landscapes and natural wonders that Wales has to offer. The rolling hills, the cascading waterfalls, and the rugged coastlines became an integral part of my identity and ignited a passion within me to capture and share the essence of these extraordinary landscapes. From an early age, I found solace and inspiration in the ever-changing beauty of my surroundings.

Capturing these fleeting moments of light, the play of shadows, and the intricate details that make each landscape unique became my chosen medium for expression.

And so, I aim to evoke a sense of emotion and transport viewers

to the very heart of Wales natural wonders. I want to create a visual experience to instil a sense of wonder and encourage a deep connection with each landscape I photograph. For my degree show exhibition, I carefully curated a collection of images to portray these diverse landscapes, from the sweeping valleys to the rugged mountains and the serene lakeshores.

I want to share the sense of awe and reverence I feel when standing amidst the towering peaks of Snowdonia or witnessing the ethereal mist hanging over the moorland, in the hope to awaken an appreciation for the land and foster a sense of stewardship for its preservation.