Since leaving her degree course in June 1998 Paula's work has gone through various stages of development. Her experiences have affected, challenged and opened her mind to how and where to look for inspiration.
She had seen her work as purely decorative and it was only with her degree work that she particularly looked for a theme or starting point to help develop a piece of textile work. The way she works now is quicker and she says "I do sometimes have a theme in mind but usually inspiration comes from interior and fashion imagery, fabrics or even just colour and pattern can give me an idea when I look at fashion or interior images. I may just get an idea from simply the mood that has been created by these images".
This quickening of the development for a piece of work has been due to the experiences she has gone through, they have helped her progress and added variety by enabling her to learn new techniques. All of this is apparent in her beautifully crafted recent work. Some of the experiences that have shaped, developed and given the overall feel and style to her work are as follows.
Degree work: Textural and spacious, looking at city skylines and shapes for inspiration. Main body of work is on paper.
While at college Paula won a national design award from the Royal Society of Art and through that she gained a work placement at a home furnishings company in Manchester: Decorative, simple designs, directed by a given colour story and theme. All work on paper.
After leaving there she freelanced for a fashion company in London: Inspiration came from fashion prints, geometric patterns, cultural textiles and flowers. Most of this is on fabric plus some paperwork.
Both the college and freelance work helped her gain and perfect many of skills and techniques she now uses, but she admits that she did get fed up with not being able to design and create for her own satisfaction.
After her training she started teaching and doing artist in residency work for Icknield High School in Luton. This led to her present post of teaching Textiles, Art and Graphics at Cardinal Newman School in Luton and she now has the opportunity to do her own work.
Today Paula is developing pieces on fabric that have been inspired by fashion, interesting surfaces, colour combinations and especially through looking at accessories like jewellery and bags.
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