Hello, I'm Rose
I'm an artist, storyteller, spinner of yarns and weaver of tales, based at Unique Cottage Studios in Spalding and working across Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.
Through my work I explore the process of making. I paint, often on a large scale (sometimes on a very small scale) and I work with spun and unspun yarn, textiles and oil pastels. Whatever the medium, I'm trying to capture and share the simple joys within us brought out by the world we live in, using colour and texture, while also questioning the systems and structures that shape our lives, often without us even noticing.
I'm passionate about traditional skills like spinning and weaving, crafts that have been passed from hand to hand for thousands of years. They connect me to the people who made before us. In a world of increasingly dominant technology, I believe these skills are vitally important, letting us work slowly and mindfully and reclaim our attention.
The same goes for stories. I'm rooted in folklore, especially the old tales of the Fens, and I love how stories change a little each time they're told. Spinning and storytelling have always gone together; it's no accident we still call a story a yarn. I believe stories have the power to challenge the way we see the world, question the systems we've come to accept and help us imagine and create something better.
These things were always done together, in person, around a fire or a wheel or a kitchen table. That's where I believe they belong. I often work with communities to engage people with art, story and nature in ways that deepen our attention and forge lifelong connections. I believe art is a tool for social change and social cohesion, and that communities need art.
I'm also a creative producer and one half of Art Pop-Up, a not for profit arts organisation based in Stamford, and I founded Angry Pencil, a grassroots big painting event for artists in Peterborough.