REBECCA WHITE
PRINTMAKER AND TEXTILES ARTIST
I am a printmaker and textile artist that specialises in large-scale colourful prints. I am inspired by my travels to India and the world. I use my experiences and imagery from this travelling to inspire my work and develop textile prints. I use my art as a therapy for myself and hope to share this with others in the future, by becoming an art therapist.
ABOUT MY WORK
My work is inspired by my travels around the world. Travelling and world geography is a passion that I have and has developed a lot since I left school in 2012. I am especially passionate about India and its culture due to the fact that I lived and worked there for a year. Indian culture inspires my art a lot because of the bright colours, noise, festivals, religions and textiles. I use my photography of these places to influence my drawings and prints. I photograph the places that I go to, preferring to focus on the everyday life of the places and not the tourist view. It is important to me as a traveller to experience the culture of the place as though I am living it not just visiting.
I am currently a final year BA Fine Art student at University of Suffolk, Ipswich. My current work for my Degree Project and final exhibition is focusing on Indian culture exploring this through textiles and printmaking. These are the two mediums that I prefer to use in my work. Although my work focuses in the area of print and textiles, I have in the past few years at university explored a variety of mediums and tend to choose the medium based on my inspiration for the artwork. I am currently focused on a large-scale hanging textiles piece printed using a silkscreen process.
I make my work to enjoy it and to share in the joy of travelling. My work can often be therapeutic to myself to make the work and I use it to relieve stress from everyday life. I intend to carry on my arts practice and professional career after I graduate by taking an MA Art Psychotherapy course and using my art and skills to help others. I am also going to visiting South Africa over the summer as part of an outreach program. This is my first ever time visiting anywhere in Africa and I am hoping that this will influence my work even more with a new culture.
MY CURRENT PRACTICE
My current work is exploratory in screen print and other print practices. I have been exploring colour in relation to the colour and traditions of Indian culture and festivals. The images below show some of my exploration into screen print process and colour. I am hoping to develop these into large scale prints onto fabric to make an installation of hanging fabric.
"Covered Woman" Stencil Cut Image
"Abstract Face" drawn with my finger through the screen
"Covered Woman in Red" drawn through screen with my finger
Screenprint
Screenprint
Screenprint
Screenprint
Screenprint
Screenprint
Screenprint
"Orange Face" orange acrylic on canvas, screen print and gold glitter varnish
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Images of past exhibition that I have been involved with. Please see my C.V. for more information.
BLUESHIFT PARADIGM
1ST - 9TH JUNE 2017
BLUESHIFT PARADIGM was my degree show 2017, after three years of study at University of Suffolk. This was a collection of 26 artists works, each finishing their degree in Fine Art. My piece for this exhibition was based around my travels in India, exploring the culture through a large textiles piece, 20 metres of fabric printed with screen print, Indian designs.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
OCTOBER 2016
As part of a residency in Uherske Hradiste in Czech Republic, a group of eight of us put together the "Behind Closed Doors" exhibition in an abandoned prison from the Communist era. The inspiration from the title of this exhibition came from the overwhelming sense of disgust at the atrocities that happened behind the closed doors of this prison. For the piece, I took inspiration from the prison itself, preferring to focus of the shell of the building and not the history.
FOLK EAST FESTIVAL
AUGUST 2016
I had made this shoe out of plaster and cardboard in my second year of university as part of my assessment. After this I was approached directly by Folk East Festival to put my large 6 foot plaster shoe in their festival. This then featured as part of their forest adventure section for children. I like that this gives children a chance to interact with my art and to experience joy from my artwork.
OPEN CAMPUS
JUNE 2016
Held at Ipswich Art School during the summer, this was a collection of undergraduate students work, from the past year. My entries consisted of three different elements. It featured three dry point prints of footprints, a slab of plaster casting a selection of footprints and the plaster cast of the inside of two wellington boots.
SCARRED FOR LIFE
MAY 2016
A collaboration between the University of Suffolk Students and The Somerville Foundation, as part of an exhibition evening to open the new congenital heart defect research centre. It included photographs of those that have had heart defect surgery and also a selection of designed 3d printed hearts.
PRJCT 10
MARCH 2016
Student led project, collaborative piece with Hannah Cook, one week to produce a body of work and exhibition held at the end of five solid days in the studio producing work. We took our inspiration from mirroring and the way that using a mirroring effect can connect two people. We spent the week at two different ends of the room, working with all kinds of mediums, mark making and mirroring each other.
FOUNDATION FINAL SHOW
JUNE 2014
Exhibited a 2 metre by 2 metre high wall made from plaster, clay and straw. Made and exhibited in the gallery space in The South Bank Arts Centre, Bedford. The piece featured several faces hidden under layers of clay as if buried into the wall itself.
THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT
JANUARY 2014
I was part of a group at college to make a travelling sketch book, that travelled around the USA as a collection of sketchbooks from different artists. A group of twenty of us, each designed a selection of pages in the sketchbook which included some notes and images from our own current sketchbooks. The final book was part of a travelling exhibition and a project led by Brooklyn Art Library.
