Tue, 29/08/2023 - 10:01
Recent winner of the Derby Print Open, Karen Wicks is a UK printmaker based in the Midlands. Her printmaking practice is inspired by derelict buildings and captures the presence and intrigue of these abandoned structures using intaglio print techniques.
Since graduating from The University of Derby in 1995 with a BA Hons in Textile Design, Karen has continued to teach art within a range of settings. She now plans to use her time as an Affiliate Member at Banks Mill to reflect upon how she might evolve her print making hobby into a small business.
Her printmaking practice evolved out of lockdown after she started to experiment with simple household materials to create prints using a pasta press and recycled box surfaces. She found this way of working so absorbing that it has developed over the last three years, exploring different low-fi materials and methods which has allowed her to explore and record a range of functional and abandoned spaces.
The Japanese notion of ‘wabi-sabi’ is central to her art practice, which celebrates beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. The narrative of everyday and forgotten places inspires her to record these places using sustainable printmaking practices.
Her work explores low-fi home print techniques and uses recycled packaging which becomes fragile and disintegrates over time to reflect the subject matter of the ‘ghost buildings’ that inspire her. She is now currently looking in more detail at rewilding at derelict sites, and how nature takes back its environment.
On her process Karen says, “A print plate takes around one to two hours to complete and then proof printing/ printing it will take another hour or so: I have to sandwich my printmaking practice between family life and work which is why my dining table remains my studio space and why I use printmaking as it is a quick process.”
In the next 12 months Karen plans to develop online and in-person workshops as well as entering more art exhibitions and opportunities where her work can engage with a new audience.
Find out more about Karen's work by visiting her website or follow her on Instagram and Facebook