I personally would not call myself an artist in the slightest. I love art and everything that surrounds it; art is a term that I feel has no definition, it is an expression or representation. It is something, in my own opinion, that cannot be defined and cannot be academically or scientifically explored. Art affected me growing up; I have always loved drawing and expressing my emotions through fashion and makeup, however, during this lockdown, it has helped me expand my artistic discovery in different fields.
I found new TV Shows surrounding it – ‘Blown Away’ & ‘Lego Masters’; I even downloaded the app ‘TikTok’ to follow makeup artists to expand my artistic feel and representation. That may sound ridiculous but honestly, the art and discovery around TikTok are absolutely amazing and I feel it has helped me become better and riskier with my looks and fashion – I have never felt more myself or happier within myself. Lockdown art has helped me express and become happy within myself.
The TV Show ‘Blown Away’ is one I will re-watch and continue to follow the winners. ‘Blown Away’ is a TV Show surrounding Glass Art; it is mesmerizing and eye-catching, I highly recommend it. Spoiler Ahead! My favourite Glass Art artist is Elliot Walker. He was a British contestant and winner of Season 2; I was lucky enough to do an email interview with him. Here are the responses and questions:
Livvi Morgan: What happens to all the artwork you created in ‘Blown Away’?
Elliot Walker: All the works we created on the BA series are actually the property of the production company as is the copyright. This was quite an interesting thing to navigate especially when it comes to remaking the works from the show to sell. I am not sure what happens with all of the original works, but the Spilt Milk sculpture is on display at the Corning Museum of Glass which I am very happy about.
LM: How does your art navigate the world?
EW: My art navigates the world in very well-wrapped boxes if that’s what you mean? In terms of cultural or metaphoric navigation, it is a more difficult thing to address. I tend to work very intuitively and am constantly revising my approach to art and making.
LM: What advice would you give aspiring artists or glass blowers?
EW: The best advice I could give an aspiring artist is to learn perseverance. It is a very difficult career path, and you need to have a strong sense of what you are trying to do and accept that you will be building your career over a lifetime rather than a few years.
LM: How has the pandemic helped and affected your work?
EW: The pandemic has been a difficult time for everyone and to be perfectly honest, without the winning result on the Blown Away series I am not completely confident I would have been able to continue my practice! Galleries closing, commission work drying up and the continued cost of living and running the studio (itself very expensive even if we are not working) would have very quickly become untenable. But the response to my work since the launch of the series has given me renewed hope for the future!
LM: What memorable responses have you had for your work?
EW: So many!! As an artist, for the past 8 years, I have worked almost exclusively through the gallery market. This has great benefits when it comes to separating myself from the difficult task of selling and shipping my sculpture, but it means that I very rarely have any contact with the clients. But this has changed somewhat as many people who have purchased my works in the past have now been in touch to send me their congratulations and tell me how much they are loving what I am doing! It also opens me up to the wider world of art lovers and I have a great time chatting with people from all over the place about my life and theirs!
