Right, let’s see…. this is a different approach to meet the maker because Corrina is a different kind of maker!!
Corrina Rothwell - Digital Artist and Illustrator
Let’s imagine a frog leaping from lily pad to lily pad. Each lily pad represents an important stage on Corrina’s creative journey. Plop, she is born (Rochdale, Lancs.) (Being born is essential to creativity). Plop, mum and dad plonk her naked on a roll of wallpaper with a paint brush and a pot of red paint. She is very small. Sadly she does not still have that first painting of hers! Plop….you get the idea now…. she goes to school and draws a Mother’s Day card in felt-tips. It’s a tree with millions of tiny pink flowers. Corrina’s teacher sends her round school to show the other teachers and says she’s really gone to town on it. Corrina draws and paints a lot but she’s not very good. She does a special painting on a big board, lots of pattern and colour (see unnaturally-posed picture).
Corrina and her rather large painting
Corrina is maybe 8 when she does this. Her dad paints over it at some point, probably when he can’t afford any board for his own painting. In later years he gives her some of his rejected paintings to paint over which makes it ok. At 13 Corrina’s best friend and her make bow-ties and sell them at school because sadly they are in fashion at the time. At 16 she starts A-level art along with French, German and English, but soon drops it thinking that she can do art on her own anytime and she doesn’t need to be taught. An ardent vegetarian, she designs some MacDonalds Murder Burger t-shirts and sells them at Grass Roots in Manchester. She also sells one to her history teacher which she’s extremely pleased about!
Mistakenly Corrina ends up doing European Studies with Dutch at Hull University. She drops out because she hates it and she’s not an academic. She goes on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and paints fabric and makes it into cushions. She also takes an evening class in screen-printing, which she loves, and produces her first greetings cards.
From there Corrina moves to Nottingham and buys herself an old Singer sewing machine. Plop. She trys a bit of freehand embroidery, feels right at home with it, and that’s what she does, mostly happily, for the next 14 years ….. although there was a ‘gosh that’s clever’ aspect to her textile work which made it appealing to people, it certainly lost its appeal to Corrina …plop…plop…plop
'she just couldn't behave herself with cheese' embroidery - Heart Gallery's best seller
Corrina gets really bored of sewing and frustrated with what it can’t do. She has in my mind a way that she wants her images to look and she can’t get them to look that way with the sewing machine. She realises that what is important to her is the image itself, not the way in which it’s created. Corrina thinks that maybe she’s a frustrated print-maker and contemplates going in that direction. However, a) she’s too impatient to learn b) the equipment is too expensive to buy and c) there’s nowhere in Nottingham where she can do it if she can’t do it at home. On a whim – plop – she buys herself a Bamboo Fun graphics tablet, plugs it into her laptop and she’s off! Corrina takes to it like a duck to water (we’re still in that pond) and finds it fun (does what it says on the tin) versatile and full of exciting potential.
Assumed Dead
So there you have it, Corrina is now working on new designs for her greetings cards which Heart Gallery sell and is sitting on her Nottingham lily pad which is going to flower beautifully this year with all the amazing opportunities coming her way.
Don't Mind Me
Corrina has a selection of prints in the clothing store Urban Outfitters in both Manchester and Kensington, which is very exciting – she loves the idea of artwork mingling with everydayness….and of course Urban Outfitters is a very cool shop!
Cross Dresser
As for new artwork, Corrina is in the throes of a pigeon obsession at the moment!
Unexpected Item
Excited by how much fun it was importing photos of pigeons and giving them things to say, she went out with her camera, took lots of pigeon pics and a new batch of drawings was born.
Bit Of Ham
Corrina has used pigeons in her work before, but things came to a head when she designed the poster for the upcoming Secret Garden Craft Fair in Nottingham on Saturday 25th June.
Sherwood Art Week
Corrina’s pigeon prints are on sale at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester and will soon be available from her website and other outlets.
Still Don't Fancy U
Corrina is also looking forward to having an illustrated recipe printed in a new cookbook being published in the US in autumn, called They Draw and Cook
Butter
Corrina’s work always amuses Heart Gallery customers and her greetings card range is expanding so keep bobbing in to see more great designs. Her new range Dottie is published by Black Olive.
Apostrophe
Jugs
Fruit Bowl
