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University of Hertfordshire   2007/2008

Carry Akroyd

AA2A has been brilliant for me. As a screenprintmaker, I often work in a pretty basic way (using simple cut and torn stencils) which must be said to be making a virtue of necessity. My studio space is very limited, and there are no open access screenprinting studios anywhere near where I live. So having the big vacuum table, drying racks, headspace, light , photoemulsion stencilmaking, – all wonderful! I have been able to make larger, sharper work.

Such practicalities wedded to the provision of materials has an interesting psychological effect. Besides wanting to make the utmost of the 100 hours, I was also aware that I could risk wasting ink and paper because I had nothing to lose. Thereby I achieved more. Sounds petty I know, but there’s a subconscious carefulness that one isn’t aware of till its gone. So the experience has, I hope, left me more courageous.

My work is about colour, composition, balance and harmony. It is also about the landscape, both as a compositional suggestion box, but also as a stage where human interventions modify the environment experienced by wildlife. It is the collision of making work either just about itself or concerned with the external world that keeps my brain buzzing. The ratio of one to the other changes with each work, just as each work suggests the next.

This has been a very positive and constructive time for me, added to by the helpfulness of the technicians and the friendliness of the students.