Final-year Creative Arts students' vlogs
Every year the final-year students in the School of Design and Creative Arts put together a final collection to be shown in the Design and Creative Arts Degree Shows. This is the culmination of their work throughout their degree course and a platform to raise their profile prior to graduating and starting their careers, as well as an opportunity to share their work with family and friends.
We commissioned four Creative Arts students to put together a short video charting their progress as they worked towards the installation of their collection for the 2022 exhibition. Theses videos give a fascinating insight into the processes involved and the range of skills and techniques the students have used to complete their collections.
Alongside their videos (which you can watch below), we asked each of the students to tell us a bit more about themselves and their art practice.
The Degree Show 2022 runs from 10-19 June. After this date you can view the show online and find out more about all the finalists.
Natasha Burgess
Fine Art
As a fashion and textile admirer, I have always wanted to create things out of fabric. I, myself, have a wardrobe probably too large and although I tried to donate old clothes, I still believed I could do better. I started buying more second-hand items but realised my art materials were still all new. Through researching using textiles in my work, I discovered just how harmful textile pollution was to the world. Textile pollution is the 2nd most polluting industry across the globe. Through further research I realised that I didn't want to contribute to this destruction through my consumption and used my art practice as the foundation of my resolve.
My series 'Material World' uses recycled and reused materials to create pieces that focus on the environmental destruction caused by the textile industry.
In countries such as Bangladesh and China the polluted water (mostly from dyeing and finishing processes) is often dumped into surrounding rivers, causing harm to wildlife and occupants of surrounding towns. It is easy for us as consumers to remain ignorant to the consequences of the manufacturing of our purchases when we are not faced with them. Through my work I hope to show to beauty of recycling and make people more conscious of their own consumption.
Due to the prominence of environmental issues to my work it was important to me to make my practice as sustainable as possible. I sourced the fabrics from unwanted scraps from charity shops and cut the items into strips to use as makeshift threads and any dyes I used were created using natural ingredients such as fruits, plants, and spices.
Abbey Hobbs
Textiles
With a keen eye for colour and detail, I find that the possibilities of experimenting with materials within fashion design is such an exciting and rewarding process. I thoroughly enjoy the research process behind developing a collection, correlating and sourcing imagery through photography, exploring exhibitions and discovering new upcoming designers. I also adore working three-dimensionally with processes such as ceramics and metals. I am passionate about working sustainably also, working with recycled materials
My Parabellum collection is inspired by Joan of Arc’s influences of both strength and integrity throughout the battles she led during the Renaissance. I explore imagery taken from authentic landmarks and modern battlefields across the UK. Celebrating our roots through handcrafted design, I aim to empower the 21st century woman. This conceptual, luxury womenswear collection evolves the characteristics of classic European Renaissance armour into contemporary fashion, body adornment and jewellery design. Working predominately with both traditional and modern three-dimensional applications, my outcomes creatively and metaphorically emphasise how far we have come throughout history, as well to inspire our strength to continue to face modern day challenges.
Jessamine Lynch
Fine Art
I have been at Loughborough for four years, first completing an art foundation course before choosing to study fine art and specialising in oil painting in my second and third year.
My practice is a study of self-reflection, preceded by an exploration of colour, that articulates my sense of self into ethereal visualisations. Within my practice, painting is a self-therapizing process that enables me to address my own anxieties and share my vulnerabilities with others. Growing up with a significant hearing impairment, I struggle to navigate my surroundings audibly and rely on the visual as a dominant sense of perception, which I accentuate through my own taxonomy of colour to reflect my emotional sensibilities. Building depth within my paintings is paramount to my practice as I am interested in constructing a heuristic body of cathartic self-portraits which viewers can receive intimately through an immersive transaction.
Situated within both domestic and commercial environments, this body of work is accessible to a large demographic of people who are able to resonate with different colours to explore their emotional sensibilities. The contrasting colours within the paintings enforce a juxtaposition that people are not accustomed to but when their brains become climatized to this is becomes aesthetically pleasing. My practice allows the opportunity to further explore different perspective, through colour, that appeal to wider audiences but also to be tailer made to individual preferences and environments.
Jess Williams
Fine Art
Hi there, my name is Jess and I’m currently a final year Fine Art student. I’m twenty-two years old, having started at Loughborough after taking an impromptu gap year after my A-Levels. Or, well, I call it a gap year. I actually started an Illustration degree at Arts University Bournemouth and quickly realised that Fine Art was more my calling. So, I dropped out, reapplied to Loughborough and now here I am.
Much like everyone in my year, my time as a student at Loughborough has been irrefutably marred by covid. It hit mid-way through my first year and has coloured the experience ever since. I do get to credit the lockdown as the push I needed to get my work in the direction it’s now in: Self-portraiture. Turns out its quite hard to find models for your work when in a national lockdown.
What really got me to where my practice is now, however, is that in the summer of 2021 I developed arthritis. Acute-onset, Migratory Polyarthritis to be exact. This development forced me to completely change my practice. I couldn’t physically do the type of pieces I was creating in my first and second year due to my new disability. It did, though, give me something meaty to make my self-portraits about, so silver linings, I guess. Now, I do large scale self-portraits on felt fabric, sewing my own poetry into it afterwards that expresses my feelings about my changing condition and my new life.