Artist Research - Lizzie Cullen

 

 

The artist I chose to research is Lizzie Cullen, she is a speaker and multi award-winning illustrator based in London, her work ranges from conceptual, spiritual to the futuristic. She is a professional illustrator who has worked with big clients and studied at Goldsmith on the design course. She found a love for urban cartography and for the situation movement which is an international organisation of social revolutionaries made up of  intellectuals, political theorists, and artists. Lizzie is a pen and ink artist and she began by watching strangers around London and tracking their movements with pen and from then she began illustrating the city in her own way and vision.  

Lizzie Cullen’s work revolves around walking as she designs the cities around the world in creative and abstract ways, for example she twists and curves monuments and roads to create a unique, playful style. She has a series of illustrations called the ‘London Psychogeograhies’ which she has made using pen and ink, she challenges her preconceptions of areas in London, by mapping not just routes, but also textures, ideas, weather, thought, feeling and mostly by using her mapping imagination. Lizzie believes these preconceptions maps merge with reality and her own sense and interpretations of the space, such as it’s not only about drawing directional routes, but also recording a moment of time.1

“I’ve always loved storytelling through my Illustration” 2

- Lizzie Cullen 

The quote above is from an interview by Jack Hadley to Lizzie Cullen for AOI website and within this interview she talks about her favourite books, authors, what she’ll be doing next year and more. Importantly she talks about how on her course the most challenging part was creating a narrative illustration as she’s used to “creating illustrations that portray an idea, or a concept”(2). She also mentions how using many different new mediums were great way to improve her pen and ink work which is her professional style. 

Apart from her city illustrations “Lizzie also speaks publicly to creative communities all across the uk”(3). Nowadays, she gave a talk at the British Library in London on “Reasons to be Creative”, where she explained ones creative journey. In a way this also links to my project on ‘Walking’, because a journey is a form of movement and taking a journey results in change. Just like Lizzie comments that her work has changed her over the years due to the step she took forward and with many more steps that creates a journey of her life. 

Furthermore, this quote by Lizzie really spoke to me as my graphic media work is map based on a famous game board Cluedo and tackles the idea of how children move through an urban environment. The map itself will portray a concept just like Lizzie’s professional illustrations. The artist’s targeted viewers are children so we both approach the same audience, for example she uses exaggerated designs with plenty patterns and swirls all this helps create that childlike feel. She also mixes 2D and 3D to give that fantasy feel for escapism which always seems to relate to children, this affect also creates a dream like scenario. This helps create mystery and narrative on its own, which is important because my concept is the mystery game Cluedo. These techniques will be great use for me to improve my graphic media work.

Overall, what Lizzie Cullen has in common with this module is her idea of how she moves through a environment, how she walks through it and how she records it, is based on fantasy and dream, perhaps for escapism which all the children live in.  

 

References;

1 - Cullen, L., 2020. Lizziemarycullen. [online] Lizziemarycullen.com. Available at: <https://www.lizziemarycullen.com/> [Accessed 18 October 2020].
2 - Hadley, J., 2019. Lizzie Mary Cullen: 'I’Ve Always Loved Storytelling Through My Illustration'. [online] Curtis Brown Creative. Available at: <https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/lizzie-mary-cullen-storytelling-through-illustration/> [Accessed 18 October 2020].

3 - O’Donnell, A., 2018. Artist Spotlight: Lizzie Mary Cullen – Artists' Blogs. [online] Blog.directoryofillustration.com. Available at: <http://blog.directoryofillustration.com/artist-spotlight-lizzie-mary-cullen/> [Accessed 18 October 2020].