Artist in residence - Week One, Nexus Art Cafe

I have just finished my first week at Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester where I am currently artist in residence. I have been settling into the space and letting my sculptures and drawings 'live' in their new home. I always love the beginning of a project when there are ideas buzzing around my head and I feel really fortunate to have a studio space (outside my home) to work in again. For me, ideas flow when I experiment with juxtaposing my drawings and sculptures with the space, with different textures, varieties of materials, and found objects or belongings that have a particular resonence to me. Basically when I play.

Recently I have become really submerged in research around illustrating, storytelling and the psychology of fairy tales and the symbiotic, fearful, transformative relationships between the female and animal characters in these tales .

I studied for an MA in Drawing from Wimbledon College of Art and my degree show left me at a point where I was investigating how I could transform my body through sculpture and sewn costumes/adornments. Since my degree ended I have become a mother and my relationship with my body has altered, I have begun to look more into the symbology of certain animals, and it has ignited memories of fairy tales and being read to which will be a rich resource to draw from. The cautionary, frightening and brutal nature of these tales is more vivid now that I am revisiting these stories as an adult.

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My personalised T-Shirt!!

Recently I got the chance to get one of my designs printed on a T -shirt and here is the result! I'm really pleased with how my 'love birds' design has turned out and the little Fi&Me logo at the bottom adds a cute touch too. I will be making this design into wedding stationery in a variety of colours very soon. I chose the lady-fit scoop neck T-Shirt in sky blue because I used to have a similar T-shirt back in the 90s, and this style reminded me of it. It's really comfortable, although I opted for medium and it's a little tight fitting so a large may have been better - however, with Easter having just gone by I can probably blame the chocolate for that! The site has lots of choice for both men and women in terms of style and colour and the service was really efficient with the finished T arriving a matter of days after I placed my order. I'd definitely use them again. Lu and I are thinking of getting matching...

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Fiona Meakin Designs - Draw With Fi

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