There are 18 weeks left before we present this year’s degree show to the world. In preparation we are starting a blog series to feature our soon-to-be 4th year and Masters graduates.
Today, meet Lovely Laura Sayers!
I’ve been working with paper for quite a number of years now after I was given a project in school when I was about 16 that asked us to make a black and white paper sculpture based on a myth. I went straight in with a pair of scissors and found that I loved being able to glide them through a sheet and make new patterns and shapes from something so simple. Since then I’ve neatened up my way of working, discovered my eye for colour and my pieces have naturally ended up a lot smaller and more detailed. I’m still using the same trusty pair of 89p scissors though!
I’m currently reworking a little children’s book about a character called Hi Vis Vincent who is a chubby little guy who’s job it is to paint the words ‘bus stop’ on the side of the road, but he gets bored of painting the same thing and lets his imagination run wild instead.
I’ve become really interested in simple characters who live their dreams as a result of being bored – I love the concept of making fun out of mundane situations. I found a pencil sketch of Vincent in an old sketchbook that I’d forgotten about and I liked the look of him, so this is what he’s developing into.
A lot of my work centres around personalities and physical spaces as I feel this is what my style is best suited to. Literature plays a big part too, whether it’s a story or a poem that I’ve written myself or a piece of classic literature, I like the challenge of visualising the characters and bringing something new to their stories.
In my final year I’m also making some of my own handmade paper, keeping a journal and making patterns from the scraps left over from my pieces, and soon I’ll be starting a project which at the moment looks like it’ll be based on stories about the ugly offices that our studio faces onto.
