Creative Interviews : Hazel Terry

I'm on home ground this week with a very special friend and it's been such a privilege to know Hazel. She's an artist and an art educator, passionate about all aspects of art, craft and design. Hazel loves finding treasure and magic and sharing the creativity and inventiveness of wonderful artists and makers in her amazing The Art Room Plant blog.  I've managed to tie her down to get these answers from her!!

Hazel with Freya

How would you describe yourself in five words

workaholic, scatty, kind, patient, happy

How would your friends describe you

Mad, Wild, Hairy, Scarey, Crazy

Superscoop

Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

Rubbish, I cannot stand rubbish and how the problem of people littering seems to be growing exponentially.

Polystyrene, I wish it and other non biodegradable human products could be uninvented, and in this I include nuclear products.

Inconsiderate or unkind treatment of people, animals, plants and the planet.

Mustaches

Tell me about something you've achieved

I don't know quite what to put here, I don't feel I have achieved my potential yet and that is probably what drives me to work so hard in so many spheres,at home, teaching and in my practice as an artist.

My proudest achievement was hand rearing a sparrow, I love animals and life, I hate to see it wasted.

Gran and Hen

What’s your ideal working day.

I suppose it is crazy, but this is how most of my days are, and though I think though they are possibly a bit on the full side, I seem to work best when I have a lot of plates spinning.

I get up early at 5am or 6am and hit the ground running. I get the most and the best work done before my family get up in the quiet daylight of the early morning.

I love my teaching work, I teach such a variety of people and a variety of subjects that it is very satisfying, especially when I get my students to work on a project that blows their minds and they all buzz with ideas, excitement and creative comeradery.

In the evenings after my family are fed and cleaned etc I get back to my work. Usually I work at the kitchen table or if I am painting, at the kitchen wall.

Maybe I am too noisy and sociable, I don't have or crave a quiet studio away from it all. The draw back of this is that everything has to be done and cleaned away before I can start.

Red Riding Hood & The Wolf

Who influences you creatively.

No one individual, movement or genre of art or craft, the full spectrum of art, craft, fashion, photography and design constantly bombard me with inspiration. I have often been in trouble with art schools and other establishments for not belonging to one class of art.

I got in trouble at Belfast (York Street) for trying to transfer to Fine art from Fine craft design. At ECA for making a film for my final Painting degree. People want to find a draw to pop you into, a label to slap on your forehead. I am too interested in too many things and I keep pealing off the label. Sometimes I do feel it is my downfall and if I channeled all that energy and effort into one form of practice, then I would have been more successful . . . but then would I be me?

Are you usually late, early or right on time

Always early, I do not like to be late

Bird

How do you start on a piece of work? (I usually clean the house!)
haha I clean the house! I need order to be able to work even though I am often accused of not seeing my mess, but I do see most of it and everyone elses.

I usually wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, sometimes I write it down in the dark in a wee book beside my bed. In the morning if I am free of other projects I start it, and then I work on it till it is finished. If ever I go onto something else, the original work is doomed, I rarely go back.

Skrimshaw

Where would you go in the world for inspiration

All over it, on the internet! The kitchen table - my daughter is at a great age and she is prolific, I love her interpretation of the world.

Away from it all, if I can I like to go away to very remote places and just be. I have had the luxury of a job with a decent length of holiday and the use of my great uncles remote house in France. This is heaven for me as the wildlife is abundant and every year something different features, hoopoes, hares, frogs etc. It is the tonic for my working life and a time when I always feel I get my self back and can be really free.

Early Work

What piece of work are you most proud of

Thinking about it , It would not be a piece of art work by myself, there are pieces over the years that I still love, but 'proud of' that is something different.

I am proud of collaborations with others and most proud probably when it does not involve people who are identified as being 'arty' or 'creative'.

November last year for example, when again on a night thought, we managed to get the whole college making and wearing mustaches for the male cancer charity 'Movember'.  It was spontaneous, fun and creative for so many different people and it made lots of money for a worthy charity.

Movember

Laughter makes me proud, maybe I am in the wrong profession!

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

My photography, I love people, so taking photographs of them is just the best fun for me, but I am not technical about my photography, I haven't read the manual.

Also I wish I could learn to remember names it is a large and terrible failing of mine.

Who do you think I should interview next

Piet Hein Eeek : Greenupgrader

Piet Hein the Dutch furniture designer.

Garbage : Greenupgrader

Garbage the French recycled lighting man.

Christien Meindertsma : Textile Source Blog

Christien Meindertsma, she is amazing. . . so many wonderful artists designers and crafts people out there.

Thanks so much Hazel. It's been a delight for me and it was great going through all your work. Cheers me dear!  First pint's on me!

Hazel's links :

The Art Room Plant

Flickr

Furniture & Interior Design Blog

Fashion Blog