Sophie uses her imagination, experience and her senses to create art and poetry.
year of birth: 1963
birthplace: London
current residence: London
started early
Where did it all begin?
Probably in my mother’s kitchen. Generally speaking, in the wild London I grew up in: full of patterns, colours, voices, accents and transfixing incident. I was lucky that paint (gouache) was part of the household supplies, as mum was a textile designer and mostly worked from home.
What is the worst advice you’ve heard?
I’ve had a lot – mainly rather patronising and in relation to the fact that I’m a woman and a mother. Thankfully I have had some encouragement too.
Most beautiful moment during the creative process?
I love how paradox remains paradoxical even as a solution reveals itself (to getting something made or said.) In other words, I know that when something is impossible, that’s when it’s shifting into the new.
I also relish the fluidity and occasionally the resistance, of materials – so that making the work becomes a bodily process in which eyes and wrists and breath take over from the intellect and enliven the piece under scrutiny or construction.
What doesn’t inspire you?
AI!
What are you proud of?
I am proud of persisting – and of all the books, paintings, poems that I have made or collaborated on, I’m proud of my skills which I have practiced and developed over so many years. I am very proud of my kids as well.
Who would you like to meet or who would you like to work with?
I am very lucky as over the years I have come to work with many people I admire. I still hope to meet or work with a gallery or museum, so that my work as an artist moves into a more visible space – as most success I have had has been in books and public arts projects, partly because the work I make tends to be outward facing and hard to commodify.
There are many artists, writers and other creative people I would love to meet or work with – but then just to look at what they make is inspiring.
Favourite material?
I have an ancient tryst with gouache, a fluid ongoing relationship with ink, an abiding respect for oil paint, an untranslatable pact with language – and along with all that I love combing through the rubbish – so collage is one of my natural habitats.
What would you have done, if not this?
Maybe cabaret. Certainly nothing that requires too much logic.
When was your biggest moment of doubt?
I found art school really depressing and dispiriting and very much doubted that I had anything to say.
Who is your biggest supporter?
I have a supportive set up – my partner is used to my obsessive work patterns, and I have two studio spaces at home which really helps. The space at the top is for big messy work, and the room that used to be my daughters’ bedroom is where I write. One of our kids has big disabilities, and it’s really only since he no longer lives with us that I can concentrate in an extended way.
I am part of a small writers’ group, all very talented women – and we give each other a trusted friendly space for constructive feedback.
Support also comes from people who commission me or invite me to collaborate or take up residencies. I value community and discourse, in my years of isolated child raising and working from home, I did not get enough of that, so it is extra important to me.
What is to you, the most beautiful sentence?
‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners, blow Your trumpets, angels’
I could choose any number of sentences from poems I love – but I don’t think you can go wrong with John Donne! This whole ‘Holy Sonnet’ of 14 lines is in fact just one sentence – so if you look it up you will get a properly good value answer.
What do you still want to do?
So many things! To start with I have to finish the giant collaborative graphic novel I’ve been working on for the past two years with film maker Sarah Gavron.
Also I am making a podcast with an American writer called Dan Schifrin. It’s about where care and creativity intersect. It is called ‘Art and Other People’. We have recorded 10 episodes and are at the editing stage.
Then I have written another poetry collection, (I do anyway have a big back log of poems that I would love to see published).
Also I have been co editing (very slowly) an anthology of furniture poetry with W N Herbert (do submit!) plus I would of course really love a big exhibition, then to make my next graphic novel that’s been on the back burner – etc etc. May I live long and healthy! (laughs)
Where do you work?
I have a studio room at the top of our house in south London. Sometimes if it’s too hot I defect to the kitchen table.
I often work in public spaces doing story drawing, or performing my work.
I have held residencies in various interesting places, eg in a forest in Northamptonshire, in Berkeley, California, and at a writer’s fellowship in Italy, so I am used to making myself at home all over the place. I always take plenty of ink and seal it carefully for the journey! (laughs)
Want to see more of Sophie’s work?
makers over hun passie. 