Emily Catherine
An artist based in Nottingham came to share her experience and journey of how she became a well established artist using different mediums. Starting out with learning how to graffiti amongst other artists in the community, creating giant murals, to getting her work used for a children's series on YouTube.
Catherine would do a lot of album work for big Hip Pop artists in Britain, such as Big Narstie. Using artist's albums and lyrics to think of something to paint/ create for her clients. Translating feelings around music in to a visual medium for people to experience with their ears instead of just their eyes.
Catherine's seemed to greatly appreciate Hip Pop as her values align with the main message used in the genre, which is to allow marginalised communities that have experienced oppression to express their selves to their country and hope to build a connection with people of all different backgrounds.
When asked about Catherine's Instagram and how she used it to her advantage she said ''You don't have to be an influencer to start a good Instagram to network and show case your work, don't worry about the amount of followers you have''. Instagram was a very useful tool in her projects being seen by other artists in different areas of England, mainly London. This is what had helped her to get in touch with many Hip Pop artists, as well as word of mouth after completing one artist's album art cover, this would then attracted more.
One student had asked Catherine what was her greatest achievements, she answered with selling out her own exhibition of work. Catherine went on to say that she made sure that the event suited as many different financial backgrounds and interests of people in the area, she even marketed the event on BBC radio. Another was creating murals in Nottingham centre, this also led her to working with Nottingham's famous fashion designer, Sir Paul Smith and creating a mural to honour him.
Catherine emphasizes about the importance of joining art communities and networking through trying out new activities within your environment. The Nottingham artist had always made sure to involve herself in many charities' for all different courses to benefit her local area by using art as a means to do so. Catherine had also found work just by speaking with business owners, such as a pub owner, and adding creativity to something such as cup mats, and adding a sense of fun and difference to any social building.
The take away from this talk for me, was to keep involving yourself in your local community and see what you can do to improve the area using creative ventures.
Emily Catherine’s Website Portfolio
