insideKENT Magazine Issue 53 - August 2016 | Page 23

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE:

FRANCES PICKERING
interview by Lisamarie Lamb / images © Frances Pickering

(L-R): Girls at Work - A spread from an illustrated and stitched book made from vintage recycled fabric. A study of the jobs that women and girls had to do during the First World War;
Girls at War - A spread from an illustrated and stitched paper and vintage fabric book illustrating the plight of the women left behind in poetry and prose; Pack Up Your Troubles - A spread
from an illustrated and stitched book made from vintage recycled fabric. An ironic look at the “Jolly” First World War song.

How would you describe your art?
I am an artist who makes books using textiles
and stitch as an integral part of the whole. Making
books and journals, filling them with illustration
and stitch is the main focus of my work. I love
experimenting and use many unorthodox
methods to construct and decorate the books I
make. I recycle as many things as possible and
use very cheap and unpromising materials and
strive to turn them into something of worth.
What is your background?
I have always stitched, drawn and painted right
from when I was very young. I have always made
clothes, firstly for my dolls when I was little, and
then for my children. I also made soft furnishings
and toys for my family and I even got pressganged into making costumes for my children's
school pl