A Trick or a Treat down Mexico Way…

Shadowing a first-time print maker in residence

This week we are in Mexico and it is a riot of bright colour and scent with marigold flowers to honour the Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos. Everybody gathers together to fully appreciate those souls who have departed this world.

A consideration of another’s or a hidden perspective is one way we can learn more about the luminescence of life.

This week we can’t help think of a darker side to Halloween: compulsive, ‘zombie-like fast fashion shopping’ for carelessly printed, flammable, plastic clothing that can melt the flesh or fill our lands with toxic chemicals the day after the fun is over.

Still.

It just frightens us…

And so we ask, what are we doing with colours and prints these days? Let’s not make excuses - disregarding human and planetary impacts because we are celebrating and ‘having a day off’ - that just gives us the chills.

Can we not appreciate that festivals can be human and natural?

Do we remember that the colour and vibrancy we gravitate to, just like the colour and vibrancy found naturally, takes time and care to create.

Mozzie Cozzie is grateful to Abigail Egwunyenga, our current print designer-in-residence for this little treat: her fly-on-the-wall submission, sent at a time when the trick of throw away clothing design remains really scary.

There's an excitement that comes with the final stages of experimenting and building a creative professional path within the walls of an academic institution. For me, the summer of 2018 accompanied this excitement in the form of a 2-month paid print-making residency at East Street Art Leeds. But of course, moving from a student life to a professional one is never straightforward. Removed from the bustling shared studio of over fifty students, I was confronted with the creative culture shock of fresh faces and unfamiliar equipment. Thankfully, the residency came along with some perks. An all-expense paid one-year membership access to the print workshop with an induction, career advice, marketing experience and a monthly stipend. What more could a 20-year-old artist desire?

Embracing the boundaries outside my comfort zone gave me an opportunity for creative rediscovery and offered foundational life practices that I would like to share:

The key to knowing it all sometimes is by admitting that you may know nothing at all:

Yes, printmaking is the same process in every print workshop... though no one talks about the awkward adjustment period of fiddling and navigating your way through your new environment. It was at that moment that I realised that I have truly never created on my own. I'm sure we’ve all been there, getting to be trusted with that one shot you’ve wanted so much. When you finally find yourself in that once-imagined position, it is as if you do not know where to start. In my case, I was trusted with the autonomy to use the equipment and my hard work of three years almost like I knew nothing at all. There were new experiences as well like drafting an invoice at the beginning of each resident month and marketing.

However, one thing became clear after this artistic probation study. When you trust yourself even when you aren’t sure, your creativity instinctively takes over.

You can find something beautiful in chaos:

Speaking of probationary periods, mine within this residency experience wasn't as easy as explained... I made mistakes along the way, from artistic ideas not coming out as I had envisioned to having little accidents and hurting myself in the process. These overwhelming stages of unfortunate events crippled my confidence. Imagine print members coming into the workshop and realising that a printmaker is making silly mistakes “embarrassing!” I thought. However, the more I cared less about how embarrassing these silly mistakes were, the more I ended up learning from the community of print creatives I encountered weekly. This isn’t as isolating as I insinuated right? Well, for me this community was different from the art student body I was used to. The sheer diverse nature of the people that came into the print workshop on the daily, offered a new module on printing 101. As an artist who specialised in textiles, my new creative hub exposed me to new refined ways of interpreting repeats, understanding my theoretical background through community application, and helping others with their projects. Hearing the reasons and stories behind their commercial or artistic exploits helped shape the project aim that I ended up exploring up till today. Longing for true meaning and appreciating the creative purpose found by others gave me even more confidence in embracing my creative investigation of cultural heritage through the cultural manifolds of textiles.

With conviction, anything is possible:

The residency is gradually ending and as usual, an exhibition is expected to take place. It was up to me and the other artists in residence to plan the whole event. Now back in university, I loved hosting people, but this was the first time that the invite list particularly for this opening had art council members, professional artists, Executives from East Street Arts, and my own lecturers. The pressure was intense. Managing the budget given for the exhibition opening event with my co-artist in residence despite the pressure was a new type of fun. Collaboration and creative thinking can be applied anywhere really. Putting up our creative works was the easy part. Now curating food, drinks and waste bins in a way that would allow easy movement around the small gallery space was the tricky part. It was important for us to take into consideration health and safety, food allergies and personal preferences..  aside from the aesthetics of presentation. Determined to take on this new challenge, we were able to plan and curate the event adequately with guidance from workshop technicians and the new community we encountered day to day. In the end, it was such a proud moment for us young residents to share our work and creative stories with a professional and local audience.

The bigger picture:

Looking back 7 years on, I find how this experience laid a solid foundation for later vocational encounters up till my current PhD research position. Though I haven't had other print resident positions, I am grateful for all the values influenced by the opportunity. One thing I have come to realise now in my mid-20s is that this experience isn’t just reserved for print-making experts to process. We will always be confronted with challenges even when we assume there isn’t a reason to have any. With conviction, humility, and openness to the right community, you can make the best out of everything.

So, if you are home-making or recycling your Halloween costume this year - may good spells be upon you!

If not, watch out for those blood suckers and we don’t mean the mozzies this time!

Here’s to appreciation - whether you are dead or alive.

Stay Smitten Not Bitten.

Galvanize Your Eyes -photo of a dropped earring on a bathroom floor:

Get Creative and Bat Off Fast Fashion with Mozzie Cozzie!

Find beauty in discovery, in the awe of the lost and found, in the sense of the other.

It can be terrifyingly simple and a joy to behold!