Hunted Projects: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your creative background?

Tracey Slater: I have always been drawing and painting. Creating characters, drawing people like Bruce Forsyth and putting them up on my bedroom wall. It was something that I naturally gravitated towards. I remember being a child on stage, in awe! Winning a drawing competition at Haven Tiger club with the grand prize of a colouring book. Being a kid, it’s just about fun, exploration and you don’t really overthink it.

I had an inspirational art teacher in secondary school who was always super supportive and whom I’m still in touch with today. She would let me paint after school and on dinner breaks. She would always say I was the only student to ever get 100% for GCSE. Bragging! Ha ha.

I went to college for Art but later dropped out. At around 25 I got into university for Illustration. Later graduating First with Honours. But it never really felt right. 

A few years later I got ill and didn’t start drawing again until 2019. Now I just let loose and explore. 

In the past year I have exhibited at Mall Galleries, been part of Numerous online exhibitions and am one of the winners of the recent Delphian Open Call.  

HP: Tutti Frutti Tiger Club! offers the viewer a candid insight into your world, the works are layered with imagery that references your past. Can you discuss this series of works for the viewer?

TS: Like all of us we have memories we love to revisit and go back to. When we imagine these moments we can relive them and experience those feelings again.

I wanted to incorporate this idea with the shapes and objects of still life. People throughout time have put their stories onto objects, so I put parts of my childhood onto vases and fruit.

I found inspiration from an old scrapbook. Taking sections from old cinema tickets and birthday cards from my grandparents. I also worked from memories of Haven Tiger club, the beaches at golden sands and painting on the outside wall on Christmas Day.

I hint at those references and play with the shapes and characters with almost abstract sensibility combining the chosen still life objects. It’s a collaboration of expressive raw lines with worn out marks, colours and smudges.

Each medium can hold different lines and feelings when using them. I want the viewer to see and feel the process on the paper. 

HP: You use your materials with an honest sensibility; your mark making is both beguiling and elegant. I am aware that some materials are off limits, but what about the materials in these works?

TS: I surround myself with charcoal, crayons, pastels, Glue stick and colouring pencils so I can just grab them instinctively to create marks. It’s a process of not over-thinking and going from one to the other, like ping-pong. 

I excitingly explored numerous materials. I had ideas of printing which led me to transfer paper. Like a child with a new toy. When it arrived I ripped it open and started making marks.

Charcoal has always been a favourite due to its dark black pigment and resistance to the paper. It’s messy and dusty. I don’t like things being clean and precise, it doesn’t fit me. I want the works to feel as if they have been used and touched.

I worked with different papers. Some were more fragile, others smooth, grainy all having different properties to explore. I cut up large sheets of Fabriano paper that I had used as a table cover. It had obtained spontaneous beautiful marks over the months. 

It’s all about how the mediums feel when working with them. Colours can feel like textures. Lines made by different materials can hold different meanings. It’s about how it can come together and figuring it out. 

HP: Still life is the principal genre present throughout the exhibition, though you explore it in a very unique and semi-abstract way. What is it about this genre that appeals to you?

TS: I enjoy the shapes of objects. We are surrounded by these objects on a daily basis and purposely buy them to look at and use.

Vases and mugs can hold stories on them. From elaborate 18th century vases to your favourite chipped mug. It offers a space to share and communicate ideas. You can interplay, layering and connecting the different forms with patterns and characters in exciting ways.

It’s a great place to build a narrative. Putting your own stamp onto the items, like using them as advertisement space. A Vase or Fruit bowl can be a blank canvas to graffiti your drawings onto. 

HP: Can you tell me about your studio and working routine? Do you have any morning rituals or habits that contribute towards a fulfilling day in the studio?

TS: I have a home studio. It’s a cluttered mess to be honest. I have a large desk next to the window that looks out on to the front garden. I have random insects fly into it startling me plus the birds come visit. 

I don’t have any scheduled time, it’s all chaotic. I can wake up and go straight into my studio with the need to make marks. Some days it’s can be a slow process. 

Just stepping into the studio is all I need to start and get something going.  I urgently grab the mediums I want and find something to draw from.

Time can be lost and I will have forgotten to eat or drink. Some days it’s also just a quickie of 15 minutes. Bish bash bosh. I work to my own time, which can be whenever from early morning to 3am.

HP: In relation to social media and particularly Instagram, you have a loyal and impressive following of over 12K. What are your thoughts on the importance of social media today?

TS: For me social media is extremely important. It offers me a space to connect with others and share my works. I decided to start it a year ago, for confidence and motivation. I had 145 followers and I just wanted to share my process and connect with others.

Social media has changed everything; you can share and learn from people all over the Globe. You can create your own world from the smallest of places and from whatever limitations you have. It opens up opportunities.