May 6, 2025 • 53 mins
Step into the vibrant, textured world of Alison Holt, one of Britain’s most celebrated textile artists, whose breathtaking embroidered landscapes blur the line between painting and stitchwork. In this deeply introspective interview, Alison opens up about her creative process, her lifelong connection to nature and color, and how she transforms threads into emotion and movement. We explore her artistic journey, from early inspirations and challenges to the meditative rhythm of stitching that defines her signature style. Listeners will discover how Alison uses free-motion embroidery to capture the essence of light, water, and landscape, and why textile art continues to inspire a new generation of artists around the world. Whether you’re a creative soul, art student, designer, or admirer of fine craft, this episode invites you to slow down, look closer, and rediscover the beauty woven into every detail of the world around us.
✨ Keywords: Alison Holt, textile art, embroidery, fiber art, British artist, creative process, art podcast, artist interview, contemporary craft, nature inspiration, free motion embroidery, creativity, handmade art, sustainable art, slow making, artistic journey.
English textile artist Alison Holt uses her imagination to capture landscapes and nature and then weave them into colorful canvases that are often taken for paintings. Alison says: 'Each piece is a combination of silk painting and freehand machine stitching. The painting creates depth, perspective and richness to the work and combines effectively with stitch to give detail and texture.’ Her work can be found in private collections around the world and in galleries from London to Sydney. Alison was born in Oswestry, Shropshire in 1956, the youngest of two girls, to Cyril and Brenda Holt who were garage proprietors. Her father died of a brain tumor when she was just 13 and her mother was left to raise her daughters. Her parents always supported her artistic interests and by the time Alison graduated from Oswestry Girls High School she had only one ambition which was to get into art college. From Shrewsbury Art School she was accepted into the prestigious Goldsmith College in London from where she graduated with a BA Hons in Fine Art Textiles, specializing in Embroidery. By now her talent had already been recognized and she was immediately offered an exhibition and given commissions. She returned to Shropshire and began what was to become a parallel vocation in teaching at Wexham Art College. Alison married in 1993 and worked part time in her studio while raising her two boys Tom and Jonathan. For 40 years now Alison has built her business as a textile artist, which includes writing books about her practice and teaching courses at her home studio throughout the year. Alison lives in Oswestry with her husband John Moses and their dog Bobby.
Alison’s links:
https://www.alisonholt.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/alisonlholt/
Some of Alison’s favorite female artists.
Melissa Scott Miller - Artist - painter
Jan Beaney - Textile Artist
Chiharu Shiota - Installation Artist
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram
The AART Podcast on YouTube
Email: theaartpodcast@gmail.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
✨ Keywords: Alison Holt, textile art, embroidery, fiber art, British artist, creative process, art podcast, artist interview, contemporary craft, nature inspiration, free motion embroidery, creativity, handmade art, sustainable art, slow making, artistic journey.
English textile artist Alison Holt uses her imagination to capture landscapes and nature and then weave them into colorful canvases that are often taken for paintings. Alison says: 'Each piece is a combination of silk painting and freehand machine stitching. The painting creates depth, perspective and richness to the work and combines effectively with stitch to give detail and texture.’ Her work can be found in private collections around the world and in galleries from London to Sydney. Alison was born in Oswestry, Shropshire in 1956, the youngest of two girls, to Cyril and Brenda Holt who were garage proprietors. Her father died of a brain tumor when she was just 13 and her mother was left to raise her daughters. Her parents always supported her artistic interests and by the time Alison graduated from Oswestry Girls High School she had only one ambition which was to get into art college. From Shrewsbury Art School she was accepted into the prestigious Goldsmith College in London from where she graduated with a BA Hons in Fine Art Textiles, specializing in Embroidery. By now her talent had already been recognized and she was immediately offered an exhibition and given commissions. She returned to Shropshire and began what was to become a parallel vocation in teaching at Wexham Art College. Alison married in 1993 and worked part time in her studio while raising her two boys Tom and Jonathan. For 40 years now Alison has built her business as a textile artist, which includes writing books about her practice and teaching courses at her home studio throughout the year. Alison lives in Oswestry with her husband John Moses and their dog Bobby.
Alison’s links:
https://www.alisonholt.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/alisonlholt/
Some of Alison’s favorite female artists.
Melissa Scott Miller - Artist - painter
Jan Beaney - Textile Artist
Chiharu Shiota - Installation Artist
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram
The AART Podcast on YouTube
Email: theaartpodcast@gmail.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Alton Holt and I'm a taxtile artist.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, I'm Chris Stafford and this is Art the podcast
where we get up close and personal as we get
to know creative women from around the world of visual arts.
This is Season three, Episode nine. My guest this week
is the English textile artist Alison Holt, whose imagination captures
(00:29):
landscapes and nature and weaves them into colorful canvases that
are often taken for paintings. Alison says each piece is
a combination of silk painting and free hand machine stitching.
The painting creates depth, perspective, and richness to the work
and combines effectively with stitch to give detail and texture.
(00:53):
Her work can be found in private collections around the
world and in galleries from London to Sydney. Allison was
born in Osma Street, Shopshire in nineteen fifty six, the
youngest of two girls to Cyril and Brenda Holt, who
were garaged proprietors. Her father died of a brain tumor
when she was just thirteen, and her mother was left
(01:14):
to raise her daughters. Her parents always supported her artistic
interests and by the time Allison graduated from Osma Street
Girls High School. She had only one ambition, which was
to get into art college. From Shrewsbury Art School, she
was accepted into the prestigious Goldsmith College in London, from
(01:35):
where she graduated with a BA Honours in Fine Art Textiles,
specializing in embroidery. By now her talent had already been
recognized and she was immediately offered an exhibition and given commissions.
She returned to Shropshire and began what was to become
a parallel vocation in teaching at Wexham Art College. Allison
(01:58):
married in nineteen ninety three and work part time in
her studio while raising her two boys, Tom and Jonathan.
For forty years now, Allison has built her business as
a textile artist, which includes writing books about her practice
and teaching courses at her home studio throughout the year.
Alison lives in Austar Street with her husband John Moses
(02:21):
and their dog Bobby. Alison, Welcome to the podcast. Thank
you for taking time out of your day to join
me this week. It's a pleasure and you have been
listening to the show. So you know what you let
yourself in for?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So what would be a normal day for you, then,
would you be working most of the day.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yes, getting into the studio is my priority. Life gets
in the way a little bit sometimes, so I don't
always make it, but always, I think, for the last
forty years, that's what I like to do, and then
I slot in other things around it. If it's the
(03:02):
other way around, I'm sure some people can relate to this.
You never quite get in the studio, so I like
to do it that way around.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And you've got children too, boys, but I'm sure by
now they're grown and they're away and with their own families.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yes, no, they're no grandchildren. My son tom Is has
a partner and they live in London, and my son
Jonathan lives locally and he has a partner too, so
we see plenty of them. But yes, they've they left
home quite a while ago.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you have the house to yourself pretty much then.
My husband and I Yes, Well, I'm just wondering what
a typical day would be like for you if you
have your studio at home.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yes, my studio is We had a double garage that
we converted to make a studio for me, which overlooks
the garden, and it's big enough to teach in. So
we did that about eight years ago. Before that, I
was in the attic. We used to joke about me
starving in a garret, and yeah, I usually get in
(04:09):
here between nine and a half past unless something else
is scheduled, and if the weather's nice, which it has
been the last few days, the doors are open and
the next thing I know, I'm in the garden doing
a bit of weeding.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Ah. Yes, you can combine your love of gardening too, then,
so I can. That's a perfect existence, isn't it. The
everything's just as it should be for you.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah. I feel very privileged and very grateful for the
life I've got, Yes, very much so.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And you live in a very pretty part of England
on the Welsh borders there. I'm familiar with that area
and it really is inspiring. I'm sure the landscape does
inspire you, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It does, Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So a lot of the work I do is based
on just walks with my dog, things that I see
around within probably only a two or three mile radius,
and so I don't have to go very far, and
then the seasons give me even more variety. So yes,
it's a great place to live and It's my hometown,
(05:14):
so it's what I know and what I love.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Born and raised. You didn't wander very far from homescept
when you were in college.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
No, I went down to London and came back here
after I graduated from Goldsmith's and thought, well, I'll just
have a little think about where I want to go
and what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
In retrospect? Is there anywhere you would like to live
if you weren't living where you are?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I traveled extensively to Australia and New Zealand. I did
before COVID. I was going there every year to teach
and exhibit, and I did that seven years in a row,
and I just thought thought it was an amazing country.
Both of them. I loved both. But I think loving
(06:08):
somewhere and actually wanting to upsticks and live there is
very different. My husband, Yeah, my husband worked abroad for
a long time, so I was a bit like a
single mom for several weeks at a stretch, and we
talked about him getting different posts married status rather than not,
(06:29):
but we wanted the security for the children. My husband's
mother and my mother were nearby, and it sort of
worked for us. That I stayed here and pursued my career.
But we love to travel, so I've always been the same.
I like to get out in the countryside, but I
like to live on the ascates of the town with
all the advantages that gives me, and I like to
(06:51):
live here and travel and visit places. It's the best
of both worlds really, and we.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Do have course a lot of listeners in Australia and
New Zealand. So you'll have to tell us where you were, yes,
oh wow.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, the first trip took me to Tasmania, which is fabulous,
and then to Sydney. And then the following year some
students had come over from Perth and Adelaide and Melbourne
to my course in Tasmania, and that's how I got
(07:26):
to go back the second year because they then asked
me to go and teach in those locations.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And it sort of snowballed like that. That's how I
kept going back. I would get.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Two new new townies by students who had been on
a course.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So it was just lovely.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
It just was really organic, just developed and evolved, and
I enjoyed every minute of it. It was it was
hard work and it took a lot of took a
lot of planning, but I didn't mind that because the
end result was fantastic experience.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You mentioned your husband, John Moses. What does John do well?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
He was in education when we first met. He was
living and teaching in Borneo. He worked for the Sultan
of Brunei and set up a sixth form college and
had a lot to do with education being developed over there.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So he was out there for about eight.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Years, and then he looked for a job that gave
him some time in the UK and some time abroad working,
So he ended up in Libya, in the middle of
the Sahara Desert. But it meant that he could still
be in education. He was working in the training department,
(08:43):
teaching nationals English and getting them into universities to be engineers.
And there was a policy where he was really doing
himself at a job and all the other expats out
of a job because they were training local people. Paul
to take over all the jobs with that, and he
(09:03):
did that for a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, I'm bound to ask how you met.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
My best friend is John's cousin, and she introduced us.
I was eighteen and so was she, and she said,
my cousin's coming home. He's been working in Borneo for
several months, and I think you'll like him. I think
you should meet him.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So yeah, and then what happened? Did you marry early?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Then?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Tell us the story?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
No? No, The running joke is that we had three
attempts at a relationship before we finally got our act together.
So I was actually thirty when John and I got together.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Third times a charm, Yes, so had.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We had some ups and downs, I think you might say,
in between, But yeah, we've been together now thirty something years. Yeah,
so two children, so happy endings. Indeed, indeed it worked
out in the end. Now let's go back to your
early life, because, as you said, it was all very local.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You didn't move far from Oswas Street. You were born
in nineteen fifty six in Oswes Street. I tell us
a little bit about your parents, Cyril and Brenda, who
were garage proprietors. Was that always the case?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Well, when I was born, I think my father was
a mechanic. My mom worked in a pharmacy and they
wanted to they wanted their own business, and so when
I was seven, we moved out of Oswestreet to a
village called Lunkliss, which is sort of towards the Lash border,
(10:46):
and they took on a business there where my father
was in charge of.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Mending cars.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He had a paint shop where he actually mended the
bodies as well as the engines, and my mom was
in charge of petrol sales and car sales, and that
was the family business, and that's where I was brought up.
And they worked jolly hard, and they really did.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Was your dad involved in World War two?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
No, World War two ended before my I think my
father did his National service, but he wasn't old enough
to be in World War two. No.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Quite a few years since the end of World War two,
of course. But I'm wondering, being a child of the fifties,
if you did feel any effects at all personally.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Although a lot of the attitudes of my grandmother and
my mother was a result of rationing, which obviously the
whole country was affected by. So there was always that
thing about not wasting food, and you know, just generally
(11:55):
being very careful with money and working hard, garden all
the rest. But I think I don't think there were
strong feelings about how difficult the war had been because
my grandfather actually didn't fight in the Second World War
because he was excluded because he I think it was
(12:19):
deemed that the work he was doing was important enough
that he had a chauffeur for Lord Harlock, which is
a local family. Tarlot was actually it's his name. At
the end of the films at the cinema, he was,
(12:41):
I forget what the title he was, but he would
he would be part of the kind of censorship team
or something. Sorry, I'm signing a bit vague anyway, I'm
rambling a bit. He but their house where my grandfather
was a chauffeur, became a hospital during the Second World
War and he was in charge of the maintenance on
(13:03):
the whole of that house, and so he kept the
boiler going and he did all the repairs and made
sure that that hospital, which looked after injured soldiers, you know,
was well maintained and kept running. So they had a
very different war to some people.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yes, indeed, I'm wondering which part of England was that
was that in your area.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That's here we live opposite the fields that lead up
to the to the house, which is in different hands now.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But my mum was.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Brought up there. They had they had a flat in
the grounds, and yeah, she had an interesting upbringing.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
What kind of stories were you hearing then from your
grandparents when you were a child.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Oh, all sorts of interesting things about really being in
service and the fact that they were rubbing shoulders if
you liked with the landed gentry. I think one of
the interesting things was how the war changed the attitude.
(14:14):
And my mom born in twenty seven. By the time
the second the First World War had finished, the attitude
to whether they could have any conversation with or be
seen by anybody visiting changed radically. So my mom's younger
brother actually played with the children from the Big House
(14:38):
and also any visiting children, so you know, the Kennedy's
visited and my uncle played with them, and you know
that sort of thing. So I found that interesting. And
my mom was interesting because the last place you wanted
to do was go into service, so she was very
(14:59):
much your own woman.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I'm just wondering, because you know the family was
in service, that you really felt the impact of the
class system.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I don't think I did personally.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think I think my mom didn't want to be
in that world, which is why she went to work
at the chemist and the pharmacy, and why she and
my father wanted to run their own business. They were
forging ahead in their own way, and so I didn't really.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Experience any of that.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I heard the stories from my grandparents, but my mom's
stories were really about her own, her own experiences, which
which weren't really you know this in the same world.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Were you close to your parents, which one did you
spend most times with them? What kind of things would
you be doing.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I was closest to my mom. Father died when I
was thirteen, so that relationship obviously ended then, but I
was close to him.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
He was one of life's enthusiasts.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So if you showed any interest in anything, you know,
as a child, and he would say, oh, we better
get you some flippers, and we better get you a mask,
and you know, anything that you might need. And then
when I was nine, I learned to ride, and I
was fortunate that he said, well, we should get you
a pony.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know, you need your own horse.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
So I had a pony from the age of about ten,
and that was down to my father. He he was
very generous and you know, encouraged us.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
What did you do with your pony, did Jim Carna's
Pony Club?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, badly. Well, I just used to go out riding.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I just used to love to get.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Out in the countryside.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You could go a lot further on a horse than
you could walking, and that's what I love to be.
I just love to be outside, so that was the
perfect thing for me. Well were you competitive, Not really No.
I did try to learn to jump and you know,
do various things, but my heart wasn't in it, and
(17:30):
I don't think my skill.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Level was there either, So.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
It was really about just riding horses and being out
in the countryside, which fortunately that's where I lived when
I was about four miles out of the town, so
it was on the doorsteps.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So that was lovely.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Your father and your parents were really indulging you whatever you.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Wanted to try, supporting.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I didn't feel indulged, but I felt supported. I don't
think I was spoilt. The difference, isn't there? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Absolutely, yeah, Yeah, felt very supported and encouraged. You have
a sister, Pauline older or younger than you, three years older,
and were you good mates? Where did you play together
as children?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Not? Not really, No, we'd sort of rubbed along together. Okay,
we have a good relationship now, which is lovely. That
not to imply we had a bad relationship where we
were at home, but you know, there's always sort of sibling.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Stuff going on, isn't there. And so.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
We didn't do a lot of things together. That's my
that's my memory that we were. We were quite separate.
She didn't want to ride, she didn't come swimming. Yeah,
we didn't do those sort of things together.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And as what were the circumstances of your father's death.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Oh, he had a brain tumor and yeah, and died. Well,
I had an operation, but it was malignant, so he
died six months later. Yeah, very sad, very sad for
my mom. Difficult for us, it was, well, it was
life changing for all of us. It has quite an
(19:13):
impact that absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I mean, to lose a parent, you know, at such
a young age for any child, it's very very hard.
And I'm wondering how you reflect on the impact it
had on you personally as a thirteen year old child.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, I think I think it's made me very independent
because I think I watched my mom become very independent.
So I think when you lose a parent. There's lots
that go on, and I think my mother was an
amazing role model. She carried on that business. She was
a very male orientated world, but she managed extremely well.
(19:55):
And I just watched her well and listened to her
say things like, well, you know you've got two choices,
haven't you, which really means you're onready got one and
you have to get on with it. That would be
her philosophy. You can't just give up.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No, Absolutely, she was determined to carry on kicking on.
As they say, Now, what would you have learnt from
that then, that you carried into your adult life.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, I think not to let things deter you from
what your goals are. I think, as I said, I
think I'm very independent. I like a challenge. I suppose
it be interesting to ask my children what sort of
mother I am?
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Maybe not?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, I was going to ask you next, Actually, what's
your friends? What your family? Perhaps your mother? Even how
they would describe you?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I honestly don't know. I know my mom was very
proud of everything I've achieved. She told me that, which
was lovely, but I'm not sure how she'd described me
bit strong willed?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Perhaps?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What about your family? How would they describe, you know,
are your friends.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, my good friend mal my best friend. Now she
says that I'm her best friend. She values that highly
like I value her. Oh, I don't know what makes
a good friend. Somebody you can rely on, Somebody who
keeps it real, Somebody who supports you, like my parents
(21:37):
supported and encouraged me. I like to do that with
other people and my own children.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Going back to childhood, then, Alison, you obviously enjoyed the
big outdoors, and I'm wondering what else you did it.
Was there any art interests as a child?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, yeah, very much. So. That was really a strong
hobby for me. Just drawing.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Absolutely loved it and discovering that I could draw. I
remember at school, I would be eleven and we all
had to sit opposite each other in the art class
and draw the person across the table from you, and
we had an hour and I can remember looking at
(22:22):
my drawing and thinking, I'm not sure people will recognize
who this is.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And then they pinned them all up on the.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Board and we all, you know, we all stood back
and we looked at our own and looked at everybody
else's and I can remember thinking, oh wow, well, at
least it looked humans. There were some really interesting drawings
up there, and thinking, oh, I can draw. I was
worried about a likeness, but you know, I'd got the
eyes and the nose and the mouth in the right place.
(22:51):
And yeah, it was a real eye opener. Because we
all have different skill sets, don't we. And I think,
you know, it's really important that people are allowed to
find their strengths.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
It doesn't always happen, does it.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Education has become so prescriptive and the art squeezed out,
but yeah, for me, that was just so important.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Did you feel then that your art was drawn out
of you when you were in school before you went
to college.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
I had a really good art teacher and so color
theory and perspective. It seemed a little dry, I can
imagine to some people, but I found it all very interesting,
all those essential building blocks. I'm very grateful for that
because it gave me such a good grounding and an
enthusiasm as well. It wasn't dry, and I think it
(23:46):
was a really really good base for me to start
our college with.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So your pathway through high school then was determining what
you were going to do it was no doubt that
you wanted to get into the arts.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely, yes, our college all the way.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
What else did you do in school? What kind of
student were you?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I was extremely average, which is a family joke. When
I got into Goldsmith's College, my mother told the local
newspaper because she was very proud of me, and when
they asked her what she thought and how she felt,
she said, I'm absolutely delighted, and because Alson was very
(24:29):
average at school, which I just think is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Are you clearly involved as an artist?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I did. Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I think what my mom went was I was very
average at everything else, and so there's this kind of
interesting viewpoint that perhaps art was the only thing I
could do. Anyway, it was all I wanted to do,
So that's fine. I went to high school, you know,
I did O levels and A levels, and let's say,
(25:01):
in actual fact, being average is not a bad thing,
is it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
What else did you do in school? Were you a
very social child? Did you make friends easily?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yes? I think I might have been seen as too.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Social, distracting you from your studies.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Probably, Yes, Yes, chatting at the back of the class
might be. It might be something I did a little
bit too much of Yeah, very sociable.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, and going through school in the sixties and seventies,
it was a very interesting time too, you know, socially
and shut in terms of pop culture as well, were
you into pop culture? Were you into music?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Oh? Yeah, we weren't.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
We definitely were into music, yes, but very keen on
all the tabla motown stuff and on the glam rock
you know, Bowie t Rex. I can remember getting very
excited about all those people, and we just faithfully watched
Top of the Pops every Thursday, That's just my era,
(26:08):
and talked about who was on there the next day. So, yeah,
that was a big deal. Music was a big I'm
going to dances that that was a big deal as well.
So you know, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, that's my that's my
memory dis goes.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
How about concerts? Do you remember the first concert you
went to?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Gosh, that's a good question. I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I did go to quite a lot, but I'm not
sure what age I would be, maybe eighteen or twenty.
I went to see people like Fleetwood, mac Billy Joe
at Stevie Wonder, all of those.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, So were you musical yourself then, apart from dancing
and enjoying the professionals, did you do anything yourself? Did
you play an instrument?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
No? No, not musical at all, but you enjoy it, yes,
very much.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Is it a part of your daily life in the
studio do you have to have music being I do.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I like the radio on because I quite like a
random selection of tunes thrown at me.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I go to different radio stations depending on who the
DJ is and what sort of music they play. So
I suppose I do. I do quite like the seventies
and eighties. Can't remember the nineties too busy rearing two children.
Can't remember any of that music at all. If there's
a quiz on, don't ask me a nineties question.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Do you sing along? Are you a karaoke girl?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
No?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I don't sing along. No, I might do in the car.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Aren't we all in the car? I think we all do.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, But in the studio it's very much background music
while I'm working. I like the radio and so I
can in and out. I've tried listening to a play
while I work, but I actually sit and listen to
the play to the end instead of getting on with
some work.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
So tell us Ellison, where and when you were actually
deciding on which medium you were going to use. Was
it whilst you were at Shrewsbury at the Art College
or when you got to Goldsmith? So where did you
get the inspiration to make that decision?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It was at Shrewsbury Art School, where I had a
really good tutor called Cameron Scott who was he specialized
in textiles, and so he really encouraged me to draw,
but to draw with bread and he's set me to projects.
We got on really well and he encouraged me, and
(28:56):
he was really the one that said that I should
apply to Goldsmith. He felt that I could get a
portfolio of work together and be worthy of a place there.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So I owe him a lot, so he set me
on that path.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I thought I wanted to do ceramics, but it wasn't
what I imagined.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You know, when you just had.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
A an arcolage we have, when you only had a
school experience of art, which is its painting and drawing
and not even any three D work. Really, you get
to Art College and there's all these things to choose from,
and they got very excited about ceramics. But it wasn't
(29:40):
what I thought it was. It was kind of much
more technical, and I didn't really enjoy the fact that
you'd have to put it in a kiln and say
a little prayer and hope that it came out. And
one piece that didn't appeal to me. It must be
a little bit of a control free because that didn't
appeal to me at all.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I don't want any any chance.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I wanted to be the within my sight and within
my control from you know, from Ada's really.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So yes, it was at Shrewsbury.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
That was all hand embroidery in my portfolio that got
me on the course. But then how my work developed
was was down to how we were taught at Goldsmiths,
which was given all of these tools to play with,
all of these ideas and being told that, you know,
you should think of a sewing machine as something you
(30:31):
can draw with, and that just appealed to me straight away.
I just thought I've found my thing. And that was
the purpose of the course was really to show you
all these different ways of working with tech starts.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Because Goldsmith College is quite a prestigious college, so that
must have been quite a turning point. I would imagine
to have been able to go to Goldsmith.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Definitely, yes, I felt very fortunate and it was a
terrific experience.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The tutors we.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Had and the fact that I went there has definitely
given me opportunities and opened some doors for me. So yeah,
I'm very grateful fact that I went there.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Was that a BA or a master's.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
It's a BA honors in fine Art textiles with the
specialty of embroidery, so specializing embroidery.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And so that really determined your career path. Then, so
what happened next when you graduated?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
The first thing that happened was I was offered an
opportunity to exist a bit in an exhibition called tech Print,
which was for the thirty most promising graduates that year,
and so I went down to London and took part
in that, and that gave me an opportunity to put
(31:55):
some work in a couple of different galleries. I got
commissioned to design some wallpaper that's a little bit weird
but interesting, and then I came back up to Shropshire
to have a little think about what to do next,
and I got offered a job in Wrexham Art College,
(32:18):
which is about twenty hours away. And the reason I
got that job was they phoned Golfmith's and said, have
you got any graduates that have just qualified that live
anywhere near because we need a textile tutor. And it
was a really tough interview because I was the only
one there.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Did you think that that would be the pathway into
becoming a textile artist? That you would have to be
a teacher too?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
No? I always said the last thing I wanted to
do was teach, because when you're doing a degree in embroidery,
you get asked an off a lot of questions by
friends and families and it's basically, what an earth are
you going to do with that qualification? And I always said,
I don't know, but I don't want to teach. And
that's because I visualized myself in a secondary school with
(33:08):
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Unruly pupils who were.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Not interested in art, and I thought it would be
more about discipline and teaching art. I mean, actually turned
out that I loved teaching, but I don't think I
would ever have loved working in a school because I
think the administration and the paperwork and the school inspection
(33:35):
and all of that would not have suited me at all,
but to teach enthusiastic adults who are he.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Is an absolute joy.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And so when I went to Rexham Art College and
started teaching, I had some mature students I had. I
used to work one day a week on the fashion department,
one day a week on the fine art department, and
half a day a week on their foundation course, which
is of course i'd done at Trewsbury. So it was
(34:08):
very interesting, very buried, and I.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
How long were you there?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
About three years?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
And then there was a change of head and because
I was part time, you don't have any security, so
an awful lot of part time staff lost their hours.
I went down to half a day a week, So
the writing was on the wall, and so I then
looked for some alternative and I found an advert in
(34:36):
the Craft magazine offering a free studio in a group
of studios to then give kind of talks about the
other artists. They'd have visitors and groups would come along
and you were the one that showed them around and
(34:57):
gave them a little bit of information about all the
dark that was in there. So I went and applied,
and that's where I went and that was when I
was again.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Chester and again far away, and I was.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
In that studio for eighteen years. That's where I started,
and was in a converted barn with a lot of
like minded people, which was really good.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
So that was kind of a cooperative then, was it.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Well, it was owned by somebody who had this idea
of creating a craft center with lots of artists and
crafts people in all of these studios. And then he
was in the farmhouse with a shop that sold craft
materials and crafts and had a cafe. So that was
(35:49):
his little enterprise and he was creating a business out
of that. And so I was there with a woodworker
and a potter and a jew and then we had
a picture framer moving, which was wonderful for me because
I needed picture frames. And it just evolved and we
(36:11):
saw lots of people come and go. But yeah, I
was there for eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, just very fortunate. That was my next step.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Starting off as an artist is never easy, but it
seems to me that it was seamless from going from
college from Shrewsbury to Goldsmith and then actually getting commissions
and being known as a professional artist very early on
in your career as a young woman. That must have
been a great confidence builder for you.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I guess when you look back, it all looks really
well planned, but I don't think it actually was.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I think it evolved.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
You know, losing your teaching ours was quite traumatic, and
wondering what to do next, and then having a free
studio still meant that I'd got to work living and
I got rent to pay, and it was a very
hand to mouth experience. And the first the first few
years I was there, you know, people do open the
(37:11):
studio door and stay, do you make or do you embroider?
And I'd say yes before they could finish the sentence.
And so I was. I was embroidering padded code hang
somebody who was opening a new shop in Chester. I
was selling small pieces of my work to several small
(37:33):
galleries that took me quite a few years to build up.
So it was it was really hard where I was
working six and seven days a week, so it sort
of looked seamless and relatively easy, but there was an
a lot of dedication and application really that went with
(37:55):
it all. I think when you when you're asked the
questions you you tend not to dig too deep with
what was actually going on. And I did take a
job at one stage because I couldn't afford the rent,
which was another teaching job, which was really very stressful
(38:16):
and I only lasted about four months, but it did
just get me over a financial job.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So yeah, there's been ups and downs, but yes, I've.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
I've been very fortunate with the commissioners I've had and
the opportunities I've had.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, were there times of self dealt though is often
that happens with artists, you know, the imposter syndrome that
I can't make a living out of this. This is
all well and good, but I can only make a
living if I'm teaching. What was your mindset in all
of this? Were you so determined that this was going
to work you never wavered from your path?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I think that's true. I think I was just so
determined to make it work, and so the ideal would
be to produce artwork that I was passionate about, sell
it through galleries, sal it, direct people by some method.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
You know, I opened my studio up. You know that
works really well.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
That was always my goal. But I'm there now and
I've been doing that for quite a long time. But
I literally would embroider anything in the early days because
that would pay the rent. And I don't think that
did me any harm. I enjoyed the challenge and so
(39:41):
running the teaching parallel to the making my own work.
And sometimes I feel some of the work I made
in the early days was compromised because it had a style,
and I'd slowly moved towards things that I really want
to mate. But I'm my mother's daughter. I'm very pragmatic,
(40:05):
So you don't, you know, you don't. You don't fight
against how it is. You recognize how it is. You're
a realist and you work with that.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And during this time, of course, you had to raise
the two boys. So how much of your art had
to wait then? Or were you able to combine the
two keep on your art path at the same time
as raising the boys. How did that timing work out?
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Well? It worked out really well because before I have
the children, I probably had about ten years of being
a professional artist, and so I felt like I had
a career that just needed to sort of pause or
slow down for a little bit, and you know, worked
hard at making sure it was there for me.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
To go back to. So my husband was incredibly supportive too.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
I used to have the children in nursery three days
a week and I would work those three days, and
when my husband came home on leave, he would take
care of the children. But we tended to do a
lot of things together as a family. So yeah, I
took my art career took a bit of a back
seat for four or five years, but I was still
(41:26):
pretty active. I can remember being accepted at the Chelsea
Flower Show as in the sort of art gallery section
that they had, and that was such a great opportunity,
and asking my mum whether she thought she could manage
both children for a week.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Well, we went to London.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
My mom, and my mom said yes, of course, and
I think they were two or four years of age.
So you know, I did keep things ticking over and
that became the main staate. I mean, I talked about
selling director of the public. The Chelsea Flower Show offered
me that opportunity and I actually ended up going there
(42:09):
twenty six years in a row.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That was a major selling venue for me in London.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And from that, did you get commissions?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I did?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Yeah, So I mean that's what Chelsea gave me.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Was again.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
The opportunity to meet the right people, and so lots
of commissions I would meet gallery owners, opportunities to teach
different places.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So yes, it did it again. It was a bit
like golf myths. It was. It's like a steal of approval,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
If you're in the right place, in the right gallery,
it's a short cut for people to recognize that you
are of a certain standard.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
And so I think Chelsea gave that to me chasy
that yeah, great, really.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Endorses you as an artist, and it gives your work validity,
doesn't it exactly?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
It does. Yeah, helps with the imposter syndrome.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
So how much of your work now is commissioned then, Alison?
Speaker 1 (43:28):
It fluctuates a lot.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I've got I've got one commission waiting to be started
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Last year I did three.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Some years I might do six, six or seven or
eight commissions.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
It just varies hugely.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
We had a very strange experience with COVID everybody did
when everything.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Was just on hold.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
And it almost feels like I've started a career again.
And because I don't go to somewhere like Chelsea Flower
Show now I'm not getting the same exposure.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
And so I think that's the reason.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Probably just thinking now, the probably the reason I'm not
getting as many commissions.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
It frees up my time for me to sue my
own ideas and my own my own work.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
And then your own ideas. Do they come from, as
we talked about earlier, the landscape in Shropshire? Or do
you go out and photograph to get inspiration? How does
that work?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
I do, Yes, I've just always got a camera with me,
or these days it's it's the phone, isn't it, because
there the cameras are so good and so yes, it's
walking the dog out with friends walking and they're they're
places that I see, I capture things I'm attracted to.
(44:58):
So it'll be the jets of you know, certain colors
and shape, and it's really about trying to recreate those
back in the studio.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's my starting point.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I can't I can't take a sewing machine outside, so
I've got to bring my ideas back somehow, and I
think photography for me is the best way because it's
the closest to working from life that I can manage.
I don't want to sit and sketch in the landscape
because I want to explore on the fabric with the
(45:36):
threads through stitches. That's my drawing, and so I draw
how I would sketch, and my sketches are always super detailed.
So if you if you draw it whilst out in
an open air, I don't want to then recreate it
in stitch. I want I want the stitching to be
the first exploration, if you like.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
How much of the time would you spend teaching?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Since COVID, I've restricted where I teach, so I'm only
teaching in my studio.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Here I do a series of three day courses.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
I've found three days is the sort of optim on event,
it works really well for students to have a day
of silk painting, which is how I start all my
work as as a silk painted base, and two days
of stitching.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So about five or six courses in a year. What
sort of sizes would you typically work on, Allison?
Speaker 1 (46:34):
My work's quite small scale, so.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
I'm still think in inches, So a lot of my
pieces are seven by five, seven.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
By seven, eight by ten, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I do some bigger pieces, but they're a bigger commitments
I'm but I do do some larger pieces, just because
it's lovely to have that variety, for it to be
on display with some variety, but also for me to
tackle something large and then when I've worked on that
(47:10):
for a week or so, it's really nice then to
do something that only takes me perhaps three or four
days to complete.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
So I do like variety.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
What would be your biggest piece of work?
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Do you think the largest piece I've ever done?
Speaker 3 (47:24):
I would think about three foot by four foot.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I would think about the largest piece I've ever made.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
And you are shipping around the world. Do you have
clients around the world.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Still, not so much now, although I do self from
my website and they do go all over. During COVID
I was posting things to New Zealand and Australia, all
over the US, all over Europe. So yeah, I have
got work all over the world, which is lovely to
(47:59):
think about.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
In private collections. Now, what about galleries and public where
would we see your work?
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Well, the in Broders Guild of Australia piece from me,
they have that in their in their gallery in Sydney.
I don't have a lot of work in public galleries.
It's mostly private collections. I do zibit regularly in some
(48:26):
really good galleries, but not you know, not have anything
permanently on display anywhere.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Where would you like to be shown? Are the places
that you think, yes, that would be really cool, that
would really make a difference to my status in some
way internationally.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
I don't really have any aims or ambitions in that
in that department, I think, I think where I am
at the moment is I'm just really busy focusing on
doing my very best work, I feel on reflection, you know,
over the years, my priority has been raising the family,
(49:09):
actually making a living, making sure that I earn enough money,
and now my pro he is definitely just exploring my
own art and indulging myself in a sense. I mean,
recently I've been exhibiting the mal Galleries in London, which
I feel is there, you know, is quite an achievement,
(49:31):
and there's a few societies that regularly exhibit there, and
I've been applying to their open call exhibitions and have
been quite successful. Again, this is new for me. In
the last two years so I've had work accepted by
the Marine Society and the Raw Society of Graphic Artists,
(49:56):
the Right Society of British artists. So that's something I'm
exploring and that has a real achievement to it. It's
quite tough to get into these exhibitions and you have
to do the rejections as well as the debt letter.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Now that's where I'm at at the moment.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
I'm wondering what's on your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (50:17):
Then don't have one. It's just about making more art
really and enjoying what I do.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
And where does the satisfaction come from. Is it when
you stand back and having finished a piece and you
hang it, you're satisfied with that piece, Or is it
when it gets on public view or it gets a
public reaction.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
I think it's for myself when I see it finished.
It's an interesting experience creating artwork because you go through
various stages of loving it and hating it and being
excited by it and then feeling despair. And I'm sure
a lot of people can relate to this. So in
(50:58):
the space of a few days of working my way
through a project, I can love it and hate it
in equal measure, and I just feel that it is working.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
And then you apply yourself and then you.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Rescue it or and so I think it's very hard
to be satisfied with your work, which is why you
just keep making more. You're always striving to improve. And
some people can look at my work and be so complimentary.
And I've trained myself not to point out the mistakes.
I've trained my stlf not to point out where it's
(51:35):
not quite as good as it could be. But I
can always see the faults, you know, I can always
I can always look at something and think I do better.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Well, it sounds as if you're in a very good
place in your career. Forty years now you've been doing
this and obviously a lot more art to come, Alison,
So thanks. Studio links to our guest social media and
also to our social media. You'll also find our email
address and you can drop us a line if you'd
(52:08):
like with any suggestions for guests to The Art Podcast
at gmail dot com. Don't forget that's Art with two a's.
And if you're a regular follower of the podcast, you'll
know that we have a YouTube channel where since season
three we've been recording bonus content with each guest, so
you can go over to our YouTube channel at the
(52:30):
Art Podcast. The Art Podcast, of course, is Art with
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(52:51):
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So of course that increases us visibility and helps others
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episode or the show from your podcast app with anyone
that you think might enjoy the show. My thanks again
(53:14):
to my guest this week, Alison Holt, and to you
for listening. I know you have lots of choices. I'll
be back in two weeks time with another guest from
the world of visual Arts, so I do hope you'll
join me then
I'm Alton Holt and I'm a taxtile artist.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, I'm Chris Stafford and this is Art the podcast
where we get up close and personal as we get
to know creative women from around the world of visual arts.
This is Season three, Episode nine. My guest this week
is the English textile artist Alison Holt, whose imagination captures
(00:29):
landscapes and nature and weaves them into colorful canvases that
are often taken for paintings. Alison says each piece is
a combination of silk painting and free hand machine stitching.
The painting creates depth, perspective, and richness to the work
and combines effectively with stitch to give detail and texture.
(00:53):
Her work can be found in private collections around the
world and in galleries from London to Sydney. Allison was
born in Osma Street, Shopshire in nineteen fifty six, the
youngest of two girls to Cyril and Brenda Holt, who
were garaged proprietors. Her father died of a brain tumor
when she was just thirteen, and her mother was left
(01:14):
to raise her daughters. Her parents always supported her artistic
interests and by the time Allison graduated from Osma Street
Girls High School. She had only one ambition, which was
to get into art college. From Shrewsbury Art School, she
was accepted into the prestigious Goldsmith College in London, from
(01:35):
where she graduated with a BA Honours in Fine Art Textiles,
specializing in embroidery. By now her talent had already been
recognized and she was immediately offered an exhibition and given commissions.
She returned to Shropshire and began what was to become
a parallel vocation in teaching at Wexham Art College. Allison
(01:58):
married in nineteen ninety three and work part time in
her studio while raising her two boys, Tom and Jonathan.
For forty years now, Allison has built her business as
a textile artist, which includes writing books about her practice
and teaching courses at her home studio throughout the year.
Alison lives in Austar Street with her husband John Moses
(02:21):
and their dog Bobby. Alison, Welcome to the podcast. Thank
you for taking time out of your day to join
me this week. It's a pleasure and you have been
listening to the show. So you know what you let
yourself in for?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So what would be a normal day for you, then,
would you be working most of the day.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yes, getting into the studio is my priority. Life gets
in the way a little bit sometimes, so I don't
always make it, but always, I think, for the last
forty years, that's what I like to do, and then
I slot in other things around it. If it's the
(03:02):
other way around, I'm sure some people can relate to this.
You never quite get in the studio, so I like
to do it that way around.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And you've got children too, boys, but I'm sure by
now they're grown and they're away and with their own families.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yes, no, they're no grandchildren. My son tom Is has
a partner and they live in London, and my son
Jonathan lives locally and he has a partner too, so
we see plenty of them. But yes, they've they left
home quite a while ago.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you have the house to yourself pretty much then.
My husband and I Yes, Well, I'm just wondering what
a typical day would be like for you if you
have your studio at home.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yes, my studio is We had a double garage that
we converted to make a studio for me, which overlooks
the garden, and it's big enough to teach in. So
we did that about eight years ago. Before that, I
was in the attic. We used to joke about me
starving in a garret, and yeah, I usually get in
(04:09):
here between nine and a half past unless something else
is scheduled, and if the weather's nice, which it has
been the last few days, the doors are open and
the next thing I know, I'm in the garden doing
a bit of weeding.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Ah. Yes, you can combine your love of gardening too, then,
so I can. That's a perfect existence, isn't it. The
everything's just as it should be for you.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah. I feel very privileged and very grateful for the
life I've got, Yes, very much so.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And you live in a very pretty part of England
on the Welsh borders there. I'm familiar with that area
and it really is inspiring. I'm sure the landscape does
inspire you, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It does, Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So a lot of the work I do is based
on just walks with my dog, things that I see
around within probably only a two or three mile radius,
and so I don't have to go very far, and
then the seasons give me even more variety. So yes,
it's a great place to live and It's my hometown,
(05:14):
so it's what I know and what I love.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Born and raised. You didn't wander very far from homescept
when you were in college.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
No, I went down to London and came back here
after I graduated from Goldsmith's and thought, well, I'll just
have a little think about where I want to go
and what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
In retrospect? Is there anywhere you would like to live
if you weren't living where you are?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I traveled extensively to Australia and New Zealand. I did
before COVID. I was going there every year to teach
and exhibit, and I did that seven years in a row,
and I just thought thought it was an amazing country.
Both of them. I loved both. But I think loving
(06:08):
somewhere and actually wanting to upsticks and live there is
very different. My husband, Yeah, my husband worked abroad for
a long time, so I was a bit like a
single mom for several weeks at a stretch, and we
talked about him getting different posts married status rather than not,
(06:29):
but we wanted the security for the children. My husband's
mother and my mother were nearby, and it sort of
worked for us. That I stayed here and pursued my career.
But we love to travel, so I've always been the same.
I like to get out in the countryside, but I
like to live on the ascates of the town with
all the advantages that gives me, and I like to
(06:51):
live here and travel and visit places. It's the best
of both worlds really, and we.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Do have course a lot of listeners in Australia and
New Zealand. So you'll have to tell us where you were, yes,
oh wow.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, the first trip took me to Tasmania, which is fabulous,
and then to Sydney. And then the following year some
students had come over from Perth and Adelaide and Melbourne
to my course in Tasmania, and that's how I got
(07:26):
to go back the second year because they then asked
me to go and teach in those locations.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And it sort of snowballed like that. That's how I
kept going back. I would get.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Two new new townies by students who had been on
a course.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So it was just lovely.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
It just was really organic, just developed and evolved, and
I enjoyed every minute of it. It was it was
hard work and it took a lot of took a
lot of planning, but I didn't mind that because the
end result was fantastic experience.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You mentioned your husband, John Moses. What does John do well?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
He was in education when we first met. He was
living and teaching in Borneo. He worked for the Sultan
of Brunei and set up a sixth form college and
had a lot to do with education being developed over there.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So he was out there for about eight.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Years, and then he looked for a job that gave
him some time in the UK and some time abroad working,
So he ended up in Libya, in the middle of
the Sahara Desert. But it meant that he could still
be in education. He was working in the training department,
(08:43):
teaching nationals English and getting them into universities to be engineers.
And there was a policy where he was really doing
himself at a job and all the other expats out
of a job because they were training local people. Paul
to take over all the jobs with that, and he
(09:03):
did that for a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, I'm bound to ask how you met.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
My best friend is John's cousin, and she introduced us.
I was eighteen and so was she, and she said,
my cousin's coming home. He's been working in Borneo for
several months, and I think you'll like him. I think
you should meet him.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So yeah, and then what happened? Did you marry early?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Then?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Tell us the story?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
No? No, The running joke is that we had three
attempts at a relationship before we finally got our act together.
So I was actually thirty when John and I got together.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Third times a charm, Yes, so had.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We had some ups and downs, I think you might say,
in between, But yeah, we've been together now thirty something years. Yeah,
so two children, so happy endings. Indeed, indeed it worked
out in the end. Now let's go back to your
early life, because, as you said, it was all very local.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You didn't move far from Oswas Street. You were born
in nineteen fifty six in Oswes Street. I tell us
a little bit about your parents, Cyril and Brenda, who
were garage proprietors. Was that always the case?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Well, when I was born, I think my father was
a mechanic. My mom worked in a pharmacy and they
wanted to they wanted their own business, and so when
I was seven, we moved out of Oswestreet to a
village called Lunkliss, which is sort of towards the Lash border,
(10:46):
and they took on a business there where my father
was in charge of.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Mending cars.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He had a paint shop where he actually mended the
bodies as well as the engines, and my mom was
in charge of petrol sales and car sales, and that
was the family business, and that's where I was brought up.
And they worked jolly hard, and they really did.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Was your dad involved in World War two?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
No, World War two ended before my I think my
father did his National service, but he wasn't old enough
to be in World War two. No.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Quite a few years since the end of World War two,
of course. But I'm wondering, being a child of the fifties,
if you did feel any effects at all personally.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Although a lot of the attitudes of my grandmother and
my mother was a result of rationing, which obviously the
whole country was affected by. So there was always that
thing about not wasting food, and you know, just generally
(11:55):
being very careful with money and working hard, garden all
the rest. But I think I don't think there were
strong feelings about how difficult the war had been because
my grandfather actually didn't fight in the Second World War
because he was excluded because he I think it was
(12:19):
deemed that the work he was doing was important enough
that he had a chauffeur for Lord Harlock, which is
a local family. Tarlot was actually it's his name. At
the end of the films at the cinema, he was,
(12:41):
I forget what the title he was, but he would
he would be part of the kind of censorship team
or something. Sorry, I'm signing a bit vague anyway, I'm
rambling a bit. He but their house where my grandfather
was a chauffeur, became a hospital during the Second World
War and he was in charge of the maintenance on
(13:03):
the whole of that house, and so he kept the
boiler going and he did all the repairs and made
sure that that hospital, which looked after injured soldiers, you know,
was well maintained and kept running. So they had a
very different war to some people.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yes, indeed, I'm wondering which part of England was that
was that in your area.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That's here we live opposite the fields that lead up
to the to the house, which is in different hands now.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But my mum was.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Brought up there. They had they had a flat in
the grounds, and yeah, she had an interesting upbringing.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
What kind of stories were you hearing then from your
grandparents when you were a child.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Oh, all sorts of interesting things about really being in
service and the fact that they were rubbing shoulders if
you liked with the landed gentry. I think one of
the interesting things was how the war changed the attitude.
(14:14):
And my mom born in twenty seven. By the time
the second the First World War had finished, the attitude
to whether they could have any conversation with or be
seen by anybody visiting changed radically. So my mom's younger
brother actually played with the children from the Big House
(14:38):
and also any visiting children, so you know, the Kennedy's
visited and my uncle played with them, and you know
that sort of thing. So I found that interesting. And
my mom was interesting because the last place you wanted
to do was go into service, so she was very
(14:59):
much your own woman.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I'm just wondering, because you know the family was
in service, that you really felt the impact of the
class system.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I don't think I did personally.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think I think my mom didn't want to be
in that world, which is why she went to work
at the chemist and the pharmacy, and why she and
my father wanted to run their own business. They were
forging ahead in their own way, and so I didn't really.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Experience any of that.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I heard the stories from my grandparents, but my mom's
stories were really about her own, her own experiences, which
which weren't really you know this in the same world.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Were you close to your parents, which one did you
spend most times with them? What kind of things would
you be doing.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I was closest to my mom. Father died when I
was thirteen, so that relationship obviously ended then, but I
was close to him.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
He was one of life's enthusiasts.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So if you showed any interest in anything, you know,
as a child, and he would say, oh, we better
get you some flippers, and we better get you a mask,
and you know, anything that you might need. And then
when I was nine, I learned to ride, and I
was fortunate that he said, well, we should get you
a pony.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know, you need your own horse.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
So I had a pony from the age of about ten,
and that was down to my father. He he was
very generous and you know, encouraged us.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
What did you do with your pony, did Jim Carna's
Pony Club?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, badly. Well, I just used to go out riding.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I just used to love to get.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Out in the countryside.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You could go a lot further on a horse than
you could walking, and that's what I love to be.
I just love to be outside, so that was the
perfect thing for me. Well were you competitive, Not really No.
I did try to learn to jump and you know,
do various things, but my heart wasn't in it, and
(17:30):
I don't think my skill.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Level was there either, So.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
It was really about just riding horses and being out
in the countryside, which fortunately that's where I lived when
I was about four miles out of the town, so
it was on the doorsteps.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So that was lovely.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Your father and your parents were really indulging you whatever you.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Wanted to try, supporting.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I didn't feel indulged, but I felt supported. I don't
think I was spoilt. The difference, isn't there? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Absolutely, yeah, Yeah, felt very supported and encouraged. You have
a sister, Pauline older or younger than you, three years older,
and were you good mates? Where did you play together
as children?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Not? Not really, No, we'd sort of rubbed along together. Okay,
we have a good relationship now, which is lovely. That
not to imply we had a bad relationship where we
were at home, but you know, there's always sort of sibling.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Stuff going on, isn't there. And so.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
We didn't do a lot of things together. That's my
that's my memory that we were. We were quite separate.
She didn't want to ride, she didn't come swimming. Yeah,
we didn't do those sort of things together.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And as what were the circumstances of your father's death.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Oh, he had a brain tumor and yeah, and died. Well,
I had an operation, but it was malignant, so he
died six months later. Yeah, very sad, very sad for
my mom. Difficult for us, it was, well, it was
life changing for all of us. It has quite an
(19:13):
impact that absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I mean, to lose a parent, you know, at such
a young age for any child, it's very very hard.
And I'm wondering how you reflect on the impact it
had on you personally as a thirteen year old child.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, I think I think it's made me very independent
because I think I watched my mom become very independent.
So I think when you lose a parent. There's lots
that go on, and I think my mother was an
amazing role model. She carried on that business. She was
a very male orientated world, but she managed extremely well.
(19:55):
And I just watched her well and listened to her
say things like, well, you know you've got two choices,
haven't you, which really means you're onready got one and
you have to get on with it. That would be
her philosophy. You can't just give up.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No, Absolutely, she was determined to carry on kicking on.
As they say, Now, what would you have learnt from
that then, that you carried into your adult life.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, I think not to let things deter you from
what your goals are. I think, as I said, I
think I'm very independent. I like a challenge. I suppose
it be interesting to ask my children what sort of
mother I am?
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Maybe not?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, I was going to ask you next, Actually, what's
your friends? What your family? Perhaps your mother? Even how
they would describe you?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I honestly don't know. I know my mom was very
proud of everything I've achieved. She told me that, which
was lovely, but I'm not sure how she'd described me
bit strong willed?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Perhaps?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What about your family? How would they describe, you know,
are your friends.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, my good friend mal my best friend. Now she
says that I'm her best friend. She values that highly
like I value her. Oh, I don't know what makes
a good friend. Somebody you can rely on, Somebody who
keeps it real, Somebody who supports you, like my parents
(21:37):
supported and encouraged me. I like to do that with
other people and my own children.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Going back to childhood, then, Alison, you obviously enjoyed the
big outdoors, and I'm wondering what else you did it.
Was there any art interests as a child?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, yeah, very much. So. That was really a strong
hobby for me. Just drawing.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Absolutely loved it and discovering that I could draw. I
remember at school, I would be eleven and we all
had to sit opposite each other in the art class
and draw the person across the table from you, and
we had an hour and I can remember looking at
(22:22):
my drawing and thinking, I'm not sure people will recognize
who this is.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And then they pinned them all up on the.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Board and we all, you know, we all stood back
and we looked at our own and looked at everybody
else's and I can remember thinking, oh wow, well, at
least it looked humans. There were some really interesting drawings
up there, and thinking, oh, I can draw. I was
worried about a likeness, but you know, I'd got the
eyes and the nose and the mouth in the right place.
(22:51):
And yeah, it was a real eye opener. Because we
all have different skill sets, don't we. And I think,
you know, it's really important that people are allowed to
find their strengths.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
It doesn't always happen, does it.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Education has become so prescriptive and the art squeezed out,
but yeah, for me, that was just so important.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Did you feel then that your art was drawn out
of you when you were in school before you went
to college.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
I had a really good art teacher and so color
theory and perspective. It seemed a little dry, I can
imagine to some people, but I found it all very interesting,
all those essential building blocks. I'm very grateful for that
because it gave me such a good grounding and an
enthusiasm as well. It wasn't dry, and I think it
(23:46):
was a really really good base for me to start
our college with.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So your pathway through high school then was determining what
you were going to do it was no doubt that
you wanted to get into the arts.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely, yes, our college all the way.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
What else did you do in school? What kind of
student were you?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I was extremely average, which is a family joke. When
I got into Goldsmith's College, my mother told the local
newspaper because she was very proud of me, and when
they asked her what she thought and how she felt,
she said, I'm absolutely delighted, and because Alson was very
(24:29):
average at school, which I just think is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Are you clearly involved as an artist?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I did. Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I think what my mom went was I was very
average at everything else, and so there's this kind of
interesting viewpoint that perhaps art was the only thing I
could do. Anyway, it was all I wanted to do,
So that's fine. I went to high school, you know,
I did O levels and A levels, and let's say,
(25:01):
in actual fact, being average is not a bad thing,
is it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
What else did you do in school? Were you a
very social child? Did you make friends easily?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yes? I think I might have been seen as too.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Social, distracting you from your studies.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Probably, Yes, Yes, chatting at the back of the class
might be. It might be something I did a little
bit too much of Yeah, very sociable.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, and going through school in the sixties and seventies,
it was a very interesting time too, you know, socially
and shut in terms of pop culture as well, were
you into pop culture? Were you into music?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Oh? Yeah, we weren't.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
We definitely were into music, yes, but very keen on
all the tabla motown stuff and on the glam rock
you know, Bowie t Rex. I can remember getting very
excited about all those people, and we just faithfully watched
Top of the Pops every Thursday, That's just my era,
(26:08):
and talked about who was on there the next day. So, yeah,
that was a big deal. Music was a big I'm
going to dances that that was a big deal as well.
So you know, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, that's my that's my
memory dis goes.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
How about concerts? Do you remember the first concert you
went to?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Gosh, that's a good question. I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I did go to quite a lot, but I'm not
sure what age I would be, maybe eighteen or twenty.
I went to see people like Fleetwood, mac Billy Joe
at Stevie Wonder, all of those.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, So were you musical yourself then, apart from dancing
and enjoying the professionals, did you do anything yourself? Did
you play an instrument?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
No? No, not musical at all, but you enjoy it, yes,
very much.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Is it a part of your daily life in the
studio do you have to have music being I do.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I like the radio on because I quite like a
random selection of tunes thrown at me.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I go to different radio stations depending on who the
DJ is and what sort of music they play. So
I suppose I do. I do quite like the seventies
and eighties. Can't remember the nineties too busy rearing two children.
Can't remember any of that music at all. If there's
a quiz on, don't ask me a nineties question.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Do you sing along? Are you a karaoke girl?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
No?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I don't sing along. No, I might do in the car.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Aren't we all in the car? I think we all do.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, But in the studio it's very much background music
while I'm working. I like the radio and so I
can in and out. I've tried listening to a play
while I work, but I actually sit and listen to
the play to the end instead of getting on with
some work.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
So tell us Ellison, where and when you were actually
deciding on which medium you were going to use. Was
it whilst you were at Shrewsbury at the Art College
or when you got to Goldsmith? So where did you
get the inspiration to make that decision?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It was at Shrewsbury Art School, where I had a
really good tutor called Cameron Scott who was he specialized
in textiles, and so he really encouraged me to draw,
but to draw with bread and he's set me to projects.
We got on really well and he encouraged me, and
(28:56):
he was really the one that said that I should
apply to Goldsmith. He felt that I could get a
portfolio of work together and be worthy of a place there.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So I owe him a lot, so he set me
on that path.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I thought I wanted to do ceramics, but it wasn't
what I imagined.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You know, when you just had.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
A an arcolage we have, when you only had a
school experience of art, which is its painting and drawing
and not even any three D work. Really, you get
to Art College and there's all these things to choose from,
and they got very excited about ceramics. But it wasn't
(29:40):
what I thought it was. It was kind of much
more technical, and I didn't really enjoy the fact that
you'd have to put it in a kiln and say
a little prayer and hope that it came out. And
one piece that didn't appeal to me. It must be
a little bit of a control free because that didn't
appeal to me at all.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I don't want any any chance.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I wanted to be the within my sight and within
my control from you know, from Ada's really.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So yes, it was at Shrewsbury.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
That was all hand embroidery in my portfolio that got
me on the course. But then how my work developed
was was down to how we were taught at Goldsmiths,
which was given all of these tools to play with,
all of these ideas and being told that, you know,
you should think of a sewing machine as something you
(30:31):
can draw with, and that just appealed to me straight away.
I just thought I've found my thing. And that was
the purpose of the course was really to show you
all these different ways of working with tech starts.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Because Goldsmith College is quite a prestigious college, so that
must have been quite a turning point. I would imagine
to have been able to go to Goldsmith.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Definitely, yes, I felt very fortunate and it was a
terrific experience.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The tutors we.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Had and the fact that I went there has definitely
given me opportunities and opened some doors for me. So yeah,
I'm very grateful fact that I went there.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Was that a BA or a master's.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
It's a BA honors in fine Art textiles with the
specialty of embroidery, so specializing embroidery.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And so that really determined your career path. Then, so
what happened next when you graduated?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
The first thing that happened was I was offered an
opportunity to exist a bit in an exhibition called tech Print,
which was for the thirty most promising graduates that year,
and so I went down to London and took part
in that, and that gave me an opportunity to put
(31:55):
some work in a couple of different galleries. I got
commissioned to design some wallpaper that's a little bit weird
but interesting, and then I came back up to Shropshire
to have a little think about what to do next,
and I got offered a job in Wrexham Art College,
(32:18):
which is about twenty hours away. And the reason I
got that job was they phoned Golfmith's and said, have
you got any graduates that have just qualified that live
anywhere near because we need a textile tutor. And it
was a really tough interview because I was the only
one there.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Did you think that that would be the pathway into
becoming a textile artist? That you would have to be
a teacher too?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
No? I always said the last thing I wanted to
do was teach, because when you're doing a degree in embroidery,
you get asked an off a lot of questions by
friends and families and it's basically, what an earth are
you going to do with that qualification? And I always said,
I don't know, but I don't want to teach. And
that's because I visualized myself in a secondary school with
(33:08):
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Unruly pupils who were.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Not interested in art, and I thought it would be
more about discipline and teaching art. I mean, actually turned
out that I loved teaching, but I don't think I
would ever have loved working in a school because I
think the administration and the paperwork and the school inspection
(33:35):
and all of that would not have suited me at all,
but to teach enthusiastic adults who are he.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Is an absolute joy.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And so when I went to Rexham Art College and
started teaching, I had some mature students I had. I
used to work one day a week on the fashion department,
one day a week on the fine art department, and
half a day a week on their foundation course, which
is of course i'd done at Trewsbury. So it was
(34:08):
very interesting, very buried, and I.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
How long were you there?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
About three years?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
And then there was a change of head and because
I was part time, you don't have any security, so
an awful lot of part time staff lost their hours.
I went down to half a day a week, So
the writing was on the wall, and so I then
looked for some alternative and I found an advert in
(34:36):
the Craft magazine offering a free studio in a group
of studios to then give kind of talks about the
other artists. They'd have visitors and groups would come along
and you were the one that showed them around and
(34:57):
gave them a little bit of information about all the
dark that was in there. So I went and applied,
and that's where I went and that was when I
was again.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Chester and again far away, and I was.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
In that studio for eighteen years. That's where I started,
and was in a converted barn with a lot of
like minded people, which was really good.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
So that was kind of a cooperative then, was it.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Well, it was owned by somebody who had this idea
of creating a craft center with lots of artists and
crafts people in all of these studios. And then he
was in the farmhouse with a shop that sold craft
materials and crafts and had a cafe. So that was
(35:49):
his little enterprise and he was creating a business out
of that. And so I was there with a woodworker
and a potter and a jew and then we had
a picture framer moving, which was wonderful for me because
I needed picture frames. And it just evolved and we
(36:11):
saw lots of people come and go. But yeah, I
was there for eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, just very fortunate. That was my next step.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Starting off as an artist is never easy, but it
seems to me that it was seamless from going from
college from Shrewsbury to Goldsmith and then actually getting commissions
and being known as a professional artist very early on
in your career as a young woman. That must have
been a great confidence builder for you.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I guess when you look back, it all looks really
well planned, but I don't think it actually was.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I think it evolved.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
You know, losing your teaching ours was quite traumatic, and
wondering what to do next, and then having a free
studio still meant that I'd got to work living and
I got rent to pay, and it was a very
hand to mouth experience. And the first the first few
years I was there, you know, people do open the
(37:11):
studio door and stay, do you make or do you embroider?
And I'd say yes before they could finish the sentence.
And so I was. I was embroidering padded code hang
somebody who was opening a new shop in Chester. I
was selling small pieces of my work to several small
(37:33):
galleries that took me quite a few years to build up.
So it was it was really hard where I was
working six and seven days a week, so it sort
of looked seamless and relatively easy, but there was an
a lot of dedication and application really that went with
(37:55):
it all. I think when you when you're asked the
questions you you tend not to dig too deep with
what was actually going on. And I did take a
job at one stage because I couldn't afford the rent,
which was another teaching job, which was really very stressful
(38:16):
and I only lasted about four months, but it did
just get me over a financial job.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So yeah, there's been ups and downs, but yes, I've.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
I've been very fortunate with the commissioners I've had and
the opportunities I've had.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, were there times of self dealt though is often
that happens with artists, you know, the imposter syndrome that
I can't make a living out of this. This is
all well and good, but I can only make a
living if I'm teaching. What was your mindset in all
of this? Were you so determined that this was going
to work you never wavered from your path?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I think that's true. I think I was just so
determined to make it work, and so the ideal would
be to produce artwork that I was passionate about, sell
it through galleries, sal it, direct people by some method.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
You know, I opened my studio up. You know that
works really well.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
That was always my goal. But I'm there now and
I've been doing that for quite a long time. But
I literally would embroider anything in the early days because
that would pay the rent. And I don't think that
did me any harm. I enjoyed the challenge and so
(39:41):
running the teaching parallel to the making my own work.
And sometimes I feel some of the work I made
in the early days was compromised because it had a style,
and I'd slowly moved towards things that I really want
to mate. But I'm my mother's daughter. I'm very pragmatic,
(40:05):
So you don't, you know, you don't. You don't fight
against how it is. You recognize how it is. You're
a realist and you work with that.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And during this time, of course, you had to raise
the two boys. So how much of your art had
to wait then? Or were you able to combine the
two keep on your art path at the same time
as raising the boys. How did that timing work out?
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Well? It worked out really well because before I have
the children, I probably had about ten years of being
a professional artist, and so I felt like I had
a career that just needed to sort of pause or
slow down for a little bit, and you know, worked
hard at making sure it was there for me.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
To go back to. So my husband was incredibly supportive too.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
I used to have the children in nursery three days
a week and I would work those three days, and
when my husband came home on leave, he would take
care of the children. But we tended to do a
lot of things together as a family. So yeah, I
took my art career took a bit of a back
seat for four or five years, but I was still
(41:26):
pretty active. I can remember being accepted at the Chelsea
Flower Show as in the sort of art gallery section
that they had, and that was such a great opportunity,
and asking my mum whether she thought she could manage
both children for a week.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Well, we went to London.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
My mom, and my mom said yes, of course, and
I think they were two or four years of age.
So you know, I did keep things ticking over and
that became the main staate. I mean, I talked about
selling director of the public. The Chelsea Flower Show offered
me that opportunity and I actually ended up going there
(42:09):
twenty six years in a row.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That was a major selling venue for me in London.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And from that, did you get commissions?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I did?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Yeah, So I mean that's what Chelsea gave me.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Was again.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
The opportunity to meet the right people, and so lots
of commissions I would meet gallery owners, opportunities to teach
different places.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So yes, it did it again. It was a bit
like golf myths. It was. It's like a steal of approval,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
If you're in the right place, in the right gallery,
it's a short cut for people to recognize that you
are of a certain standard.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
And so I think Chelsea gave that to me chasy
that yeah, great, really.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Endorses you as an artist, and it gives your work validity,
doesn't it exactly?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
It does. Yeah, helps with the imposter syndrome.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
So how much of your work now is commissioned then, Alison?
Speaker 1 (43:28):
It fluctuates a lot.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I've got I've got one commission waiting to be started
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Last year I did three.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Some years I might do six, six or seven or
eight commissions.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
It just varies hugely.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
We had a very strange experience with COVID everybody did
when everything.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Was just on hold.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
And it almost feels like I've started a career again.
And because I don't go to somewhere like Chelsea Flower
Show now I'm not getting the same exposure.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
And so I think that's the reason.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Probably just thinking now, the probably the reason I'm not
getting as many commissions.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
It frees up my time for me to sue my
own ideas and my own my own work.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
And then your own ideas. Do they come from, as
we talked about earlier, the landscape in Shropshire? Or do
you go out and photograph to get inspiration? How does
that work?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
I do, Yes, I've just always got a camera with me,
or these days it's it's the phone, isn't it, because
there the cameras are so good and so yes, it's
walking the dog out with friends walking and they're they're
places that I see, I capture things I'm attracted to.
(44:58):
So it'll be the jets of you know, certain colors
and shape, and it's really about trying to recreate those
back in the studio.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's my starting point.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I can't I can't take a sewing machine outside, so
I've got to bring my ideas back somehow, and I
think photography for me is the best way because it's
the closest to working from life that I can manage.
I don't want to sit and sketch in the landscape
because I want to explore on the fabric with the
(45:36):
threads through stitches. That's my drawing, and so I draw
how I would sketch, and my sketches are always super detailed.
So if you if you draw it whilst out in
an open air, I don't want to then recreate it
in stitch. I want I want the stitching to be
the first exploration, if you like.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
How much of the time would you spend teaching?
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Since COVID, I've restricted where I teach, so I'm only
teaching in my studio.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Here I do a series of three day courses.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
I've found three days is the sort of optim on event,
it works really well for students to have a day
of silk painting, which is how I start all my
work as as a silk painted base, and two days
of stitching.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So about five or six courses in a year. What
sort of sizes would you typically work on, Allison?
Speaker 1 (46:34):
My work's quite small scale, so.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
I'm still think in inches, So a lot of my
pieces are seven by five, seven.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
By seven, eight by ten, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I do some bigger pieces, but they're a bigger commitments
I'm but I do do some larger pieces, just because
it's lovely to have that variety, for it to be
on display with some variety, but also for me to
tackle something large and then when I've worked on that
(47:10):
for a week or so, it's really nice then to
do something that only takes me perhaps three or four
days to complete.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
So I do like variety.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
What would be your biggest piece of work?
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Do you think the largest piece I've ever done?
Speaker 3 (47:24):
I would think about three foot by four foot.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I would think about the largest piece I've ever made.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
And you are shipping around the world. Do you have
clients around the world.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Still, not so much now, although I do self from
my website and they do go all over. During COVID
I was posting things to New Zealand and Australia, all
over the US, all over Europe. So yeah, I have
got work all over the world, which is lovely to
(47:59):
think about.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
In private collections. Now, what about galleries and public where
would we see your work?
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Well, the in Broders Guild of Australia piece from me,
they have that in their in their gallery in Sydney.
I don't have a lot of work in public galleries.
It's mostly private collections. I do zibit regularly in some
(48:26):
really good galleries, but not you know, not have anything
permanently on display anywhere.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Where would you like to be shown? Are the places
that you think, yes, that would be really cool, that
would really make a difference to my status in some
way internationally.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
I don't really have any aims or ambitions in that
in that department, I think, I think where I am
at the moment is I'm just really busy focusing on
doing my very best work, I feel on reflection, you know,
over the years, my priority has been raising the family,
(49:09):
actually making a living, making sure that I earn enough money,
and now my pro he is definitely just exploring my
own art and indulging myself in a sense. I mean,
recently I've been exhibiting the mal Galleries in London, which
I feel is there, you know, is quite an achievement,
(49:31):
and there's a few societies that regularly exhibit there, and
I've been applying to their open call exhibitions and have
been quite successful. Again, this is new for me. In
the last two years so I've had work accepted by
the Marine Society and the Raw Society of Graphic Artists,
(49:56):
the Right Society of British artists. So that's something I'm
exploring and that has a real achievement to it. It's
quite tough to get into these exhibitions and you have
to do the rejections as well as the debt letter.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Now that's where I'm at at the moment.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
I'm wondering what's on your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (50:17):
Then don't have one. It's just about making more art
really and enjoying what I do.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
And where does the satisfaction come from. Is it when
you stand back and having finished a piece and you
hang it, you're satisfied with that piece, Or is it
when it gets on public view or it gets a
public reaction.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
I think it's for myself when I see it finished.
It's an interesting experience creating artwork because you go through
various stages of loving it and hating it and being
excited by it and then feeling despair. And I'm sure
a lot of people can relate to this. So in
(50:58):
the space of a few days of working my way
through a project, I can love it and hate it
in equal measure, and I just feel that it is working.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
And then you apply yourself and then you.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Rescue it or and so I think it's very hard
to be satisfied with your work, which is why you
just keep making more. You're always striving to improve. And
some people can look at my work and be so complimentary.
And I've trained myself not to point out the mistakes.
I've trained my stlf not to point out where it's
(51:35):
not quite as good as it could be. But I
can always see the faults, you know, I can always
I can always look at something and think I do better.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Well, it sounds as if you're in a very good
place in your career. Forty years now you've been doing
this and obviously a lot more art to come, Alison,
So thanks. Studio links to our guest social media and
also to our social media. You'll also find our email
address and you can drop us a line if you'd
(52:08):
like with any suggestions for guests to The Art Podcast
at gmail dot com. Don't forget that's Art with two a's.
And if you're a regular follower of the podcast, you'll
know that we have a YouTube channel where since season
three we've been recording bonus content with each guest, so
you can go over to our YouTube channel at the
(52:30):
Art Podcast. The Art Podcast, of course, is Art with
two a's where you'll find extended conversation between me and
my guests, so an extra few minutes there where you
can naturally see the guests yourself. And also on our
YouTube channel you'll find all of our podcast episodes right
the way back to season one. And if you have
(52:51):
a moment whilst you're on your podcast app and would
like to leave us a review and a five star rating,
that will help our rankings among hundreds and hundreds of podcasts,
So of course that increases us visibility and helps others
find the show. And you can of course share each
episode or the show from your podcast app with anyone
that you think might enjoy the show. My thanks again
(53:14):
to my guest this week, Alison Holt, and to you
for listening. I know you have lots of choices. I'll
be back in two weeks time with another guest from
the world of visual Arts, so I do hope you'll
join me then
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