Laura Hughes: Workshop Bursary Blog
The next blog from our 2023 Workshop Bursaries for 2022/23 is by Laura Hughes.
Despite facing challenges from the “Great Snow of ‘22”, as well Workshop-redevelopment-related-disruption, Laura's dedication and determination saw her making full use of the facilities and produced stunning new work. Laura shares her journey through the Workshop Bursary award below…
I became aware of Gaada during lockdown, in 2020, when they began to publish their online ‘Quarantzine’. Having followed their work ever since, and taking part in the Peer Group sessions, I was over the moon when I found out I’d been awarded a Workshop Bursary.
After several delays due to snow, childcare or illness, I finally attended my first workshop session in February. I arrived without any clear idea of what I wanted to achieve with my time there. The vast array of resources, materials, tools, and equipment that Gaada has to offer felt a bit daunting, yet I was fascinated and excited to try something new at the same time. Not having a specific project in mind made it hard to choose a starting point but Jono and Daniel suggested that I begin by transforming one of my finished tarot card designs into a Riso print. I have been working on tarot inspired art for some time now but have never found my sense of direction. I hadn’t done any printing before, other than lino prints many years ago at school, but Jono explained how the Risograph printing process works and taught me about making colour separations and layering. In a sense, we worked backwards in this process as I already had the finished image. I absolutely love the result we achieved and feel that the bold vibrancy of the inks we chose really made my tarot designs pop! Seeing them in what appears a more ‘finished’ format was a huge confidence boost.
Now that I had a basic understanding of how the printing process works, I began working on images I would like to print at my next session. I had been working on a drawing of the Slavic witch Baba Yaga (a favourite of mine!), but we agreed that this image might be better suited to a larger project which I hope to revisit soon! Instead, I split this image into 3 designs which we could print in the same style as my tarot cards: Bright Dawn, Red Sun and Dark Midnight. Daniel suggested that this time I have a go at working individually on each layer and separation for the images. This gave so much more opportunity to play around with the design and helped further my understanding of risography.
I explained to Jono that I have trouble keeping sketch books as I fear I will ruin my work by imprinting through the pages. He came up with a solution to help and even made me a peerie sketchbook to try out. We also turned a couple of my sketches into stamps using the lasercut machine. Jono was always patient and helped to focus my indecisiveness (it’s hard to make decisions when you have so many options in front of you!).
This bursary has opened a new door for me, and I am so grateful for the experience. It was lovely to be able to work in space dedicated to art, away from any of the distractions of work and home life, and each week I looked forward to having a whole afternoon committed to creativity.
I’ve learned so much and been left so inspired. I can’t wait to return to Gaada for future projects.