Last Friday I met with the inspiring artist Liz Atkin, to have a talk about her practice, my final showcase and making artistic choices.

At the beginning of my current master study Creative Practice Liz gave a workshop during the module Performance Making in which she made us come out of our heads and into our bodies by using the technique collage.

‘I had planned to take you all even a step further during the workshop, by letting you have a three dimensional response to your initial paper collage.’
However, time flew by while we were working and before we knew it it was time to pack-up, but the process did not stop there for me. At arriving home I immediately started to make three other collages over the next week and I even used it in choosing material for my collaboration on PERFORMANCE with Libby Wade. This rediscovering of the collage technique opened my eyes.

Throughout my creative practice, and even as a kid, I have used the collage technique to create in-depth work. The technique allows you to access your intuition and create a state of flow in which you create without right or wrong whilst emerging yourself completely in the doing.

During our conversation Liz gave some great insight on work processes and made me have a real brain fart when I discovered that I have been using collage in not only the editing phase of  my final showcase, but also during the filming and designing, yes even running and writing phase of my final project. This discovery will definitely become a thread through my thesis writing.

She encouraged me, much like my tutor Tom Paine, to call myself an artist first and let the medium I use to create my work be no more defining than a means or tool to present the ideas I have.

Check out Liz Atkin‘s artwork and have a listen to her latest interview with the BBC at 35:14min.

Photo & work by © ANNE• 2013