As part of our online festival MAKE A DIFFERENCE we are interviewing ‘inspiring creatives with a purpose’ throughout May, and we’re really looking forward to our interview with artist Lucy Grainge.
Lucy is a visual artist and designer currently based in Glasgow, working across the mediums of print, illustration, graphic design and murals. Her work is often community-based and research-led, visually characterised by a strong use of colour, shape and pattern. Lucy is also a workshop facilitator, delivering a variety of creative subject matter including ‘Creative Dyslexia’ workshops and recently risograph workshops. She has had solo exhibitions in Edinburgh and Lincolnshire, and exhibited artwork in Manchester, Glasgow and London. She is co-founder of Psyche, an award winning mental health and socio-politics magazine.
Lucy Grainge photographed by Hannah Logan
Tell us about your creative journey
‘I completed an art foundation at Manchester Metropolitan University, then went onto study Communication Design at Glasgow School of Art graduating in 2017. Since graduating, I stayed in Glasgow working as a freelancer on a range of projects, mostly graphic design and illustration commissions, and I sell a range of prints online and at fairs. I also work in Community Arts as a workshop leader and assistant, both in a freelance capacity and for the charity Impact Arts.
My interests usually come through in my artwork, whether it’s an ongoing project exploring dyslexia, my love of swimming or just playing around with pattern and colour. My work often involves creating platforms for people to share experiences.
I was going to study Psychology originally and I wanted to do an Art Foundation just as year out (to relax after A levels and it was free), but then decided to reapply to art school after having so much fun. So an interest in all things around the workings of the mind and people often shows in my work. Including Psyche, a mental health and socio political magazine that aims to engage and provoke discussion, which I started with Juliette Fitzgerald Duffy in our final year at Glasgow School of Art. We embrace the therapeutic and transformative nature of story telling and human expression.
The work I get asked to do also shapes my practice! I tend to just say yes to everything (even if Imposter Syndrome is luring), and usually it works out.
My practice is very varied, so each month I will be working on a different project – whether this be a larger graphic design commission, a community arts project or smaller bits and bobs. I think this way of working suits me best, although the time management and logistics is a job in itself, and there are some months where work is really intense and I’m non stop juggling, and other months are a bit slower and I bulk my income up with some extra swimming teaching hours – I have done a swim teaching shift around once a week since I was about 17 years old.
I completed a residency at Out of the Blueprint, a social enterprise risograph studio in Edinburgh at the start of 2018, which was so much fun. I was encouraged to play and explore my Dyslexia project and felt I really pushed my creative process, in a way which is very hard to do after graduating art school and trying to make a living!
Having that time was also so precious to work with a risograph, my favourite printing method due to the overlay effects, similar to that of screen-printing, but a much faster and a more sustainable process.
The experience helped us push our second issue of Psyche Publication much further (which is risograph printed), in terms of logistics of printing such a large publication, having a good relationship with Out of the Blueprint (who printed it!) and pushing the illustrations we created within the issue. Having an exhibition there also led onto designing the exhibition hand out for Design Exhibition Scotland last year, which was also riso graph printed.’
Psyche Magazine
You have done some great work around dyslexia. Tell us more!
‘In 2018 I exhibited at New Designers in ‘One Year In’, a curated showcase for new businesses. I showed my books, prints and some tote bags curated from my dyslexia work and I won the One Year In award! I was in the week of 3D and product design graduates so it was brilliant, I was in a massive hall full of dyslexics who wanted to chat about it!
The award opened up some really exciting opportunities including a solo exhibition at the National Centre for Craft and Design, and showing at London Design Week, and it put a spotlight on my work about dyslexia. It is also how I met the brilliant Patricia and part of my award was to receive training from The Design Trust.
The award also gave me the confidence to keep up the work and the ‘Creative Dyslexia’ workshops I’d begun,
which focus on informing what dyslexia is in a practical and interactive way,
and acknowledging both the challenges and strengths of dyslexia.
Whenever I have exhibited my work around dyslexia, or held a workshop and had conversations with dyslexics about what they are struggling with, how they’ve developed strategies and coping mechanisms, and also the areas they are thriving in, these conversations remind me how necessary it is to debunk the many myths surrounding it. People sharing their stories and learning from each other is incredibly empowering and inspiring, and quite a simple thing to do.’
How has your own dyslexia informed your own art & practice?
‘I originally started the dyslexia project in my final year at Glasgow School of Art, creating a series of books after completing lots of interviews with dyslexics from a range of ages and backgrounds.
It was a very personal project so at first I was unsure whether I wanted to explore my insecurities. Finding out I was dyslexic pretty late on was a light bulb moment in regards to so many things I struggled with at school. I felt a massive weight had lifted, so I wanted to use the time in my final year to explore it and to find out what being dyslexic really meant for myself and to others. It’s been quite a journey since then!
Six months after I graduated, I was lucky enough to complete a residency at a riso studio, Out of the Blueprint in Edinburgh further exploring dyslexia and creating a range of prints, which reflected this research. Since then, I have given talks and workshops at Dyslexia Scotland and I began running ‘Creative Dyslexia Workshops’ in schools and community groups, which are about teaching what being dyslexic can mean in a practical and creative way.
Dyslexia affects me in my day-to-day life, but not in the ways people often think.
My spelling is okay and I love to write, albeit it can take me a very long time to edit. My reading is quite slow as I get incredibly distracted and I often get my words mixed up and pronounce things wrong, but I have learnt to humour myself with this. My short term memory isn’t the best and time management can throw up issues, but I have developed many ways to deal with these challenges.
The epiphanies come when you find out a task other people seem to find so easy and seems so simple, but you struggle with, might be to do with your dyslexia. There are also many strengths, which often are to do with creative and non-linear thinking, and it’s really important to find out the strengths you have. My work is also about highlighting these strengths, which often go unnoticed.
Many adult dyslexics are able to hide their dyslexia pretty well or tend to avoid the tasks or jobs they struggle with, but it’s the resulting mental strain which can sometimes become a problem, maybe resulting in low self esteem or being a workaholic, feeling like you’re constantly trying to catch up.
There are so many myths and pre-conceptions about dyslexia, like many of the other neuro-diveristies. If people don’t understand what it means to be dyslexic, there will continue to be a lot of unfulfilled potential and frankly unnecessary suffering. Some of the most creative and successful people are dyslexic and are very open about how their dyslexia has helped them, and they’ve not just ‘overcome it’.
I feel passionate about informing people the plethora of ways, both the strengths and the challenges, being dyslexic can throw up, in a society which doesn’t always cater to being neurodiverse.’
Queen-wah by Lucy Grainge
What started your interest in Community Arts?
‘Whilst studying I never considered work in Community Arts, as I didn’t really know it existed. But after graduation it was sometimes the most consistent, reliable work in ‘the arts’ I was offered. I found it very rewarding – and challenging at times. It also made me look at my dyslexia project in another light.
I worked on a project called ‘Creative Pathways’ at Impact Arts, an employability course with young people who had left school or been disengaged. Many of them were dyslexic, but often had not had the support and encouragement at school or at home to find something they enjoyed or thrived at. They were also a creative bunch in many ways, but they didn’t have the confidence to see this.
It made me think about the practicalities of being dyslexic more. If you don’t have or have not had access to support, this can lead to other problems in life. It was quite a different setting to my art school experience, where sometimes you may be seen to be at an advantage to be dyslexic.’
oeoe – Risograph by Lucy Grainge
What about your current community arts workshops?
‘I’m currently working with a youth activist group at an artist’s studio run for and by young people, called Rumpus Room, in Glasgow. We had applied for funding before the pandemic and the workshops were intended to be carried out in real life, and to create a physical magazine together around climate change and creative protest. But instead we are doing Zoom workshops and creating task sheets to create content for the online magazine, ‘Adapt and Act’.
Right now with the disruption Covid-19 is causing, I think it’s really important to keep up a collaborative practice and online workshops where possible, offering people some fun, distraction and respite. And doing work around activism feels all the more important right now. We have been doing experimental drawing, making collaborative music inspired by the activist drumming group Rhythms of Resistance, and creating protest posters. We also have been discussing forms of protest and inspiring creative activists including artists and designers whose work focuses on climate change, and independent local makers who focus on sustainability and inspiring ecology and green movements. The magazine will be available online and hopefully some of the work created will be part of an exhibition in Glasgow later in the year.
I am also currently working part time (remotely!) for Impact Arts at the Govan Craft Café, a place where older people come to do arts and crafts three days a week. It’s an incredible community and helps prevent isolation. They are a totally inspiring bunch of people, they have a zest for life and a strong sense of community, but many are struggling right now as a generation who have been neglected in this crisis.
Some of the most impactful art I have seen has been in community art settings –
whether this be workshops with people who are feeling isolated, or a community group which brings together people of all different backgrounds to make together, and offers a voice to people who have not had it, in an accessible and non-judgemental environment. I have seen how positive and powerful utilising a permanent arts space can be, and the transforming effects community arts can have on well being.
Having experienced this first hand, it has had a big effect on my practice and the direction I would like it to go.’
Wiggle Woggle by Lucy Grainge
Lucy Grainge is one of the 10 creatives that we are interviewing for our online festival MAKE IT HAPPEN throughout May 2020. Come and join us to get inspired by creatives who use their creative talents for bigger purposes, including the environment, sustainability, equality, building communities and much more.
Are you a dyslexic creative? How does that impact on your practice or business? What are your personal challenges or solutions? Do you share it in your work like Lucy? We would love to hear from you in the comments box below.
The post An interview with artist Lucy Grainge on dyslexia, mental health and community arts appeared first on The Design Trust.
