Linda Hoey
Lancashire, UK
Creative, Shy, Complicated
I went to art college, am a mother of 2 and have been working as a graphic designer for the past 24 years. It is only in the past year or so where I have felt the time was right to show my work.
I have always been an artistic person right from being a child...always painted, crafted, created. It's only when someone else wanted something I had created that I finally felt I had arrived!
| Red Tree ©Linda Hoey |
STYLE
I create images that are a hybrid of digital art and fine art photography, blurring the lines between photography and painting.
MEDIUM
I shoot local landmarks, scenery and objects from nature and combine them on a computer. Once printed I have been adding paint and metallics.
Technique and Process
I start with a photograph and layer other textures and colours over them, combining them. I have used images of peeling paint, rust and general decay and layered them onto the sights and scenery I see around me. I feel this makes my work different as for me its about the balance between chaos and order, ugliness and beauty.
THEMES
I started with the local landscape and nature but this has progressed to a more concentrated fascination for trees and there inter-relationship and symbolism with man. I have always identified with the tree as it fights against all odds to stay rooted against extreme conditions. They are shelter, they are growth, they are strength, they are the tree of life. My images express the overlapping of nature and man by using digital photomontage, a layering of images from nature with textures from man made objects.
Where do you get your ideas?
I don't set out with a firm idea, ideas develop and grow...it is an almost organic process.
Why do you create art?
Art to me expresses more than the words I have can. The treatment process is capable of producing beautiful and fascinating art, which often brings out elements in the original photograph which would otherwise have remained hidden. It is liberating.
How often do you create?
As an artist you are always seeing and thinking about visual creations. As a mother it is sometimes hard to find the time to put pen to paper. I often feel I am struggling to fit everything in.
| Untold ©Linda Hoey |
What is the best artwork you ever created?
That’s a hard question. One of the first images I created was entitled Mirrorball. It was the first image that I felt went that extra mile for me. I felt proud to add it to a local gallery to stand by it and say look what I have done. I feel I have done other work that's perhaps better since but this one has a special place in my heart as being my first emerging piece.
What role does the artist play in society?
Artists see things in a totally different way, they challenge the boundaries of rules, society and imagination yet also keep us in touch with the past.
Do you sell any of your art?
My day job is as a graphic designer, basically designing for someone else's taste. I would love to create my own art all the time but in this day and age I am not sure it would pay the bills.
Art Promotion
Predominately I have been using Facebook for networking and promoting. I also have my work for sale in an online art gallery. It sometimes feels as if I spend almost as much time trying to get my work noticed as I do creating it.
INFLUENCES
I love all art nouveau, the organic natural shapes and flowing lines really appeal to me. Gustav Klimt for his use of metallics and Charles Rennie Mackintosh for his iconic rose design. It would be hard not to mention the likes of Dali and Chagall for their imagination and Rossetti's timeless portrayal of classic beauty.
Please recommend a contemporary artist.
I am a huge fan of the tree paintings of artist Matthew Hamblen, his work is so colourful and whimsical.
Recent Achievement
I recently entered a competition to redesign the front cover of a Fat Boy Slim album and made it into the last 15 designs. I didn't win a prize but was invited to the presentation dinner in a prestigious London hotel.
| Wonder Wood ©Linda Hoey |
Did you ever feel like giving up art?
I am not in general a confident person so any knock back usually makes me feel as if I should give up....I bury my head for a while them come out fighting once again.
What are your future plans as an artist?
I would love to have galleries coming to me inviting me to show my work rather than the other way round. I saw on an artists profile once he had work in the private collection of a famous person, I secretly would love someone famous to buy my work.
Advice for emerging artists
There are many knock backs to be had as an artist but if you don't try then you will never know just how good it can be too. No guts no glory as they say.
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