Aprils exhibition is by two extremely talented artists Nansy Ferrett-Campbell and Jenny Aitken:
We interviewed them both and first up is Nansy Ferrett Campbell
Who are you and what
do you do?
Nansy Ferrett - Campbell - I'm a wordsmith. I write words
and paint with them, sing them, get other people to sing them, I lull my babies
to sleep with them and I SHOUT THEM WHEN I'M ANGRY! I talk to my cats, I talk
to my garden, and I talk to the vans and the trucks and the trailers that I've
owned. I say them in my sleep. I never shut up. I'm a bit dyslexic but there's
magic in them words and I can crack their code and find it.
Why do you do what
you do?
Because if I didn't
do what I do I'd go MAD in a BAD way rather than remain so in happy slightly
manic way.
How do you work?
Quietly on the outside but the noise is riotous within.
What’s your
background?
Derbyshire born, daughter of the most beautiful people who
ever lived. Raised amongst cats and coal and worn out shoes and more love than
you can fit in a fifty foot phonebox.
What art do you most
identify with?
Kids drawings, age between 3-6.
What work do you most
enjoying doing?
Writing words, painting words, singing words, getting other
people to...ah, you get the idea!
What themes do you pursue?
Cats and caravans, trucks and trailers. It’s a big world and
we're small on the surface.
Describe a real-life
situation that inspired you?
When my little girl had meningitis at 4, I thought I was
going to lose her forever. But I didn’t. As the doctors discussed the life
support machine, I took her head in my hands and imagined I was a channel and
the horror would come out of her head and out of me. She came round. The whole
experience from her becoming ill to well was a big shaky finger telling me we
are little - big things happen that we can't stop or control, but we can do
little things to try and help, and help moves outwards in ripples. I painted
the story but it didn’t feel like I painted it.
What jobs have you done other than being an
artist?
Hop picking,
gardening, arts workshops, cleaning, singing at weddings, working at festivals.
Why art?
What else is there?
What memorable responses have you had to your
work?
The feeling of
nostalgia seems to be the most significant response. People say it time and
again, it takes them back to a time in childhood or it strikes some chord deep
within them that moves them. Not every painting for everyone but the odd person
will just be struck by one particular painting, as if it was painted just for
them, and who's to say it wasn't?
What inspires you?
Everything. The very ordinary everything’s of everyday life.
Every little moment is a story, a clip in time that really happened to someone,
who, in a hundred odd years’ time, will be dead and although we preserve the
great achievements of a person, who saves the little moments?
Is the artistic life
lonely? What do you do to counteract it?
Solitude is not a lonely place. I could spend
days alone, given the chance. But I am blessed by two girls who came into my
life and were willing to sing the words I keep writing! Together we are’ Red Ruff’.
Paint alone, sing together. I also have 3 kids and cats for company. And if
they aren’t around, I just talk to me socks.
What do you dislike about the art world?
There is a level of clickyness. There is some rubbish about
things having to mean stuff and great depth and concepts. Big words to make
people think you're clever but they just think you're a precocious ****. (Fill
in the stars - there’s only 4 so it won't make a clever word!) It’s all crap.
Do it cos you like it.
What do you dislike
about your work?
I see other painters and I can see they have a painterly
skill. People look at their work and think "WOW!" I don't think that
will ever be the case with mine. I think it touches on something sweet,
special, moving perhaps, but I'm not a real artist. I'm just illustrating
moments.
What do you like about your work?
The process of doing it.
What research to you
do?
I look at other artist’s works, old school in books and
gallery’s and new people out there in Facebook land. I have managed to
personalise Facebook into a kind of arts forum. When I turn it on I see lovely
images, not comments on who's eating what. (Not that I'm oppose to documenting
the mundane!)
What is your dream
project?
To write and illustrate a book with Neil Gaiman, obviously!
Isn’t that what everyone wants to do?
Name three artists
you’d like to be compared to.
Errr... well, I'd
love to be compared to Kurt Jackson, or on a local scale, Jenny Aitken and
Gareth Buxton, both of whom blow me away, but we're not comparable so it's hard
to say!
Favourite or most
inspirational place?
Moors, forests, hills, anywhere vast but that has a little
hut, boat, caravan, etc., in eyesight. Somewhere blasted with weather where the
trees have grown into the shape that the wind blew them into.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been
given?
When you're parents are out, don't cook chips, put money in
your mouth or give dad's beer to tramps.
Professionally,
what’s your goal?
To support me and my children from my work without having to
be crippled by a broken drive shaft or a bald tyre.
Thankyou Nansy! Read more about Nansy here.
