New member of Splinter Contemporary Artists
From memory, what was the first thing you made with your hands?
Ever since I can remember my siblings and I were encouraged to be creative. My father was a frustrated fashion designer/artist who was conscripted into a more ”manly” career of engineering to protect his own father’s pride. But as a closet artist, he would spend hours showing his eager young apprentices magic tricks, such as drawing in perspective, composition and how to use colour washes. This was a great way to impress other 6th graders who were struggling with stick men and their iridescent pink faces!
Each Saturday afternoon Mum and Dad would do the weekly grocery shop leaving us at home. To ensure our safety they would leave us with boxes of craft items and then give us a dire lecture on the terrible things that happen to small children trapped in burning houses because one child, looking straight at me, would be so foolish as to play with matches. “Flood the house” Dad would say, “Break the furniture if you have to but never, never play with matches!”
With such scope at our disposal and a plethora of implements we would set to. If the weather was good we would dig clay out of the garden, lay it out on the patio and shower it with water thus creating mighty muddy rivers and land lumps. When we had finished creating new worlds we would knead the clay until it was pliable (sort of) and then form up a veritable pet shop of animal figures. These we would line up on a baking trays to dry out and then plead with Mum to “fire” in the oven with the Sunday roast.
On wet days it was paper mache, collage, potato printing with poster paints or dress making for Barbie. Our younger brother drew the line at the last activity, insisting that if he had to dress Barbie she had to wear a Coventry City soccer outfit!
Needless to say we all survived any potential “fiery” deaths and each one of us have derived great pleasure from our artistic pursuits, my brother is an excellent photographer, my sister paints and is a superb make-up artist and as for me? Well I am still playing in mud, glue and bits of old fabric!
What are you making with your hands right now?
Most of my work at the moment, other than commissions, is in the area of mixed media. I like to use fabrics to build up the ground and then I use acrylic paints and found or recycled objects to create a piece. It is a process that is led by the objects rather than based on a pre-conceived idea. It is great fun looking for bits of “rubbish” and then pondering on a future outcome.
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Well it keeps me sane for a start! It is a wonderful outlet for getting thoughts out of the brain’s circular racetrack. It really is a selfish activity that gives immense pleasure and satisfaction.
If I create an object that gives another pleasure then that is an added bonus!
All photographs courtesy of Amanda Hocking
Amanda can be contacted via Splinter Contemporary Artists
See more of Amanda's work via Splinter Contemporary Artists on FacebookAmanda can be contacted via Splinter Contemporary Artists
Twitter: @_c_r_a_f_t_ and @Fed_Square
Instagram: @craftvictoriaHashtags: #craftcubed #craftvictoria
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