MARIA WALKER, England

My art practice is all about telling stories, be they real or imagined. I find inspiration in everyday life, taking delight in the mundane and the overlooked. I explore the landscape of the past to find inspiration, researching online and in libraries, and scouring shops for vintage items. I’m particularly interested in telling the often hidden stories of working class women. So imagine my joy when I discovered a bundle of old letters tied up with a pink ribbon. The artist in me scoured the letters for inspiration, for lines that spoke to my heart or made me laugh. Using a combination of ephemera, photographs, letters, books, garments, and drawings, my textile artwork narrates the story of the letter-writing Lightfoots—a 1920s working class family living in an industrial town in the North of England.