Seven is a secret

About the artist

Work statementMy work explores the natural world, the everyday ordinary nature within our community. I hope to encourage the viewer to live a life more Awe-dinary to slow down and notice the wonder of the natural world. To marvel at its magic unfolding in hedgerows and fields around us. I hope to encourage people to stop for a second and think about their community, about social inclusion and how they interact with others. Then I%u2019d like to stretch that thought to our natural neighbours. To consider how our lives are woven together and how that connection is the key to a happier more meaningful life. | The prints I make focus strongly on birds they%u2019re such an accessible part of the natural world their song begins and ends each day. My favourite printing technique is collagraph which can be made from the inside of an oat milk carton, mountboard, old cardboard, tapes and wallpaper, rubbish really! Along with this I can add natural elements, sand, feathers, moss, wool, leaves and create a plate that is full of texture and life. I love to create stories by adding multiple small plates to a larger base plate. I can then change elements to create new narratives and play with visual concepts. The environment is important to me so I use vegetable based inks and prefer to work in a low impact way. | I%u2019m extremely passionate about birds and have had a lifelong interest in them. I believe more than ever now that we need to notice and support them. I hope that my art helps people to notice more what is all around them that they would stop and look. Maybe learn the names of their natural neighbours and find out what they need to thrive. I hope that my art will inspire people to reconnect to the natural rhythms of the year and regain the knowledge that was passed down from generation to generation. So that we will have more to hand onto the generations that follow us.

Vicky Crawford is an illustrator, musician and printmaker living in Drumkeeran Co. Leitrim. | Community is at the heart of what she creates. To Vicky that is not just confined to humans, she is equally at home in the wider natural community. Here she works alongside her natural neighbours with whom she has a deep and respectful relationship. Printmaking has opened up an exciting world for her and she loves to work with collagraph plates using found objects from the natural world. Her favourite subject the birds she%u2019s watched since childhood lend themselves to this style of printing. Vicky enjoys telling a story, a snapshot of these birds lives to encourage people to reconnect with the natural world.%u201CIn my work I focus on connections and our natural community. I try to encourage people to get to know their natural neighbours. To reconnect as our ancestors did to the land we inhabit and to be mindful that we only share it, we are custodians not keepers. To notice nature and the small things that make up our days. For in such a big world it is really only the small things that matter.%u201D

More about Vicky Crawford

About the artwork

This piece is one of seven in a series and was inspired by my natural neighbours who moved into the woodland we planted beside our home 15 years ago. I wasn%u2019t too impressed with their arrival as I was worried about the smaller birds nests. But as they built their nest we decided to welcome them and put out extra food to accommodate them. I began this series of prints based on the poem one for sorrow it was an experiment in many ways. I love a story and am fascinated with folklore and our connection to the natural world. So I began with a base plate of the nest and decided to tell the story by adding magpies as individual plates. I love collagraph it%u2019s so low impact environmentally and playful. I have included an extra image from the series I completed the series in brown with black and white magpies. This print I decided to try just black inks it%u2019s an artists proof as I was testing colours.