News: Art students create thought-provoking exhibition
A group of our Foundation Degree Fine Art students got the chance to experience what it’s like to showcase their artwork to the public, as part of an exhibition at the National Justice Museum last month.
One of those students was 23-year-old, Lottie McGraw, who quit her full-time job working in a factory to pursue her love of art, and in particular her dream of becoming a professional tattoo artist.
Whilst studying towards her foundation degree, last year, Lottie bagged herself a trainee position at Neon Wolf Tattoo Studio, based in the City Centre, where she now works alongside her course.
When the opportunity came up to exhibit her artwork, Lottie created something which combined her two passions perfectly, with her collection of ‘Tattooed Oranges’.
It might sound a bit strange, but I was drawing on oranges as part of my tattoo training as it’s really great practice. When I started thinking about what I’d like to create for the exhibition it got me looking into criminal tattoos, particularly during the 17th Century, when it turns out that many convicts had tattoos done when they were transported from Britain to Australia. The link with oranges comes because at that time in history, citrus was used to treat the disease scurvy, so it all came together nicely.
— Lottie McGraw
Lottie was one of 15 Nottingham College students to take part in the ‘Constraint/Restraint’ exhibition, which featured some of the physical methods of restraining and constraining people within the historic prison system. The budding artists developed a range of thought-provoking pieces, from fragile hunched wax figures, to eerie ghost forms of ropes and bindings.
Published on:
- 14th February 2020 (2:43 PM)
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