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Imposter syndrome sucks... but everyone has it! - Interview with Eleanor Fatharly
11 Plays2 years ago
Thanks for making us a part of your audio worlds!
Amy on the Air interviews multidisciplinary writer & artist Eleanor Fatharly who shares her insight on homelessness, the value of a Creative Writing degree, working with the YMCA and details an ambitious project.
Find out more about Ellie: https://eleanorfatharly.squarespace.com/
As always, ArtsPod is an @thelincolncompany production
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Transcript
Introduction to Sock Artistry
00:00:00
Speaker
But during the interview he was like, oh yes socks, socks, I love socks. Are you wearing socks right now? I can see you're wearing boots. And I don't, I like to think I'm quite good at answering questions, but I kind of just went like, yeah, I'm wearing socks. I'm wearing odd socks. Isn't that kind of funky?
00:00:59
Speaker
Hello and welcome to TLC Pod. I am Amy Eyre on the Eyre with you and today we are talking about feet. We are talking about feet. So if you are a resident of Lincoln, you might have noticed on the university campus, specifically the Minerva building, that there was a strange, how do we put this ornament?
00:01:25
Speaker
hanging over the side for a long period of time. And I have the artist who visioned this masterpiece with me today. So artist, reveal yourself. Hello, I am Ellie Fathley and I am a sock girl from University of Lincoln.
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay hello Ellie and welcome to TLC Pod. So sock girl, should we talk a little bit more about the project? So how did you become sock girl? I wanted to do something in a public eye on campus that was sort of
00:02:05
Speaker
It would make people pause, but also I wanted to have something that had a big message behind it and had a cause behind it. So I've always kind of been super interested in public installation, things that are kind of almost pop-ups people walk by.
00:02:21
Speaker
And so I had a talk with my mentor and I initially had a very small scale project to do with socks. I was going to embroider poems onto them. It was going to be really cute, really nice and sort of just small scale. And he was like, hmm, no, we need to go bigger. And I was like, okay, big socks. And he was like, no, no, no, we need to go big, big scale. And I was like,
00:02:45
Speaker
Okay, what does this mean? And so it kind of went from sort of small embroidered socks to what ended up being about 200 socks hanging off of the Minerva building on campus. And I'm glad it got to that point because it's so much better than what the initial idea was. And yeah, that's kind of the very short scale of what happened to become a sock girl, I guess.
00:03:09
Speaker
Ah, so for our listeners who may not have seen this installation, can you explain a little bit what it looked like?
The Visual Impact of the Sock Installation
00:03:18
Speaker
So on the, I guess what you call the back of Minerva, where the balconies are, I hung about 200 socks off of those balconies, all kinds of colours from three different companies, so like no
00:03:32
Speaker
sock was like next to each other it was the same kind of all kinds of different colors and it kind of almost like was raining down off the Minerva building and because the balcony is a sort of glass panel it really did look like they were just floating because I used fishing wire for to connect each sock so that's kind of visually what it would look like and yeah
00:03:55
Speaker
It sounds so cool to have socks just hanging down from a balcony. It's so harmless and because socks are just socks they're like it's a harmless thing and yet it was kind of a thing that just made people pause and be like oh what the hell is that kind of thing.
00:04:16
Speaker
So again, to those listeners who are listening along, if you haven't seen this installation, one, why? And two, you can find it on Ellie's Instagram, so it's at Elinor Fatherly. So yeah, go over and have a look at it because it really is just special and it's amazing. But let's delve back in.
Inspiration and Research Behind the Installation
00:04:42
Speaker
to the kind of process behind it and the kind of research that you did behind it because I'm aware that there's a big message behind why you wanted to do this so I would love for you to talk a little bit more about that.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah I mean a lot of people work here as to why socks and that kind of was the main purpose of it because through my research into homelessness especially within Lincolnshire I found out that socks are actually the least donated item to homeless shelters and which kind of makes sense because
00:05:17
Speaker
people don't think that you can't really donate your used socks. That's the thing. And yet there's still people that need those items. And then people, it's the same thing as like underwear. That's my, might be my next project, which would be hanging underwear, but it's kind of,
00:05:33
Speaker
I wanted something that would just make people pause, and then once they think about it, go to the website, they'll be like, oh, that's kind of why. So in terms of the research, that's kind of where I started. I was like, what do homeless communities need?
00:05:50
Speaker
Into like what I wanted the project to sort of actually have a purpose and have an end result I didn't want it to just be like hang something take it down take things to the tip it's happened I wanted every part of it to have an end cycle to it so
00:06:05
Speaker
sourcing the socks, I ended up about maybe emailing 200 companies per se. I only had a copy and pasted, maybe I'd have to alter it a little bit. Just send it out to any sock manufacturer, things like ASOS. Everywhere I knew could have a sock, Sports Direct, anywhere, I'd be like, do you have any spare for this project I'm doing? It's for a good cause. It will be going to shelters that need it.
00:06:35
Speaker
And I got quite a lot of replies. It was really nice. A lot of them were...
00:06:41
Speaker
at least interested in the project and wanted to sort of be like I'm sorry but please hope it goes well kind of thing and luckily I got three companies who eventually like did send them to me and it was really good because I had a huge range and one of them I had to actually I don't drive so which made this very interesting two of them were able to post them to me but one of them had about
00:07:06
Speaker
for huge, huge sacks of the heaviest socks you've ever seen, like alpaca wool, which is great for the cause because it's people on the street that need them.
Logistics and Challenges of the Installation
00:07:17
Speaker
But in terms of carrying them, so my dad, bless him, on the way to my undergraduate graduation was like, I've got this. I'm on a mission now. So he went on the way to my graduation to Swift socks in Leicestershire.
00:07:36
Speaker
got a huge sack so I was like right I've got him so he they made up a huge portion of them I completely sidetracked anyway the next process of things was sort of having about 500 socks in my house and just being like right I know what the project is I know the vision I now need to do it and I sort of
00:07:57
Speaker
I did a process of like testing different fishing wire strengths. Again, luckily I live in a house. For a student, I have like two stories so I can do this. And I remember having my like test a line of about 20 socks on a line and just like starting to feed them through my top window to see if it would stay. And I was like, right, okay, the strength holds great. Now I just need it to not rain. And again, that was another thing as well, having to, whether it was going to rain on the day or because it was up for three days.
00:08:28
Speaker
I bet you were looking at the weather forecast like every day two weeks before it said it was gonna rain every single day and I was like okay this this can be part of the project if it falls down it's part of the message it's fine we can always work with this luckily it stayed up it was actually really sunny it was brilliant yeah I'm pretty sure it was in the heat wave it really was I was like thank you but it again it's one of those things where because it's a public installation it could have
00:08:55
Speaker
anything that happened could have been part of the message like for example i remember when we first were sort of workshopping it we were thinking like people might vandalize it people might steal the socks and like we ended up kind of thinking even if that does happen it's still part of the message like people like in essence the socks were meant to represent sort of lost not lost identities but forgotten identities and
00:09:25
Speaker
the act of when you see someone homeless on the street, you either head down, ignore it, some people interact with the person.
00:09:35
Speaker
It's kind of meant to replicate that in terms of some people just walk past an installation, ignore it, see sock, okay bye. Some people will literally pause, think about it, or either interact with the QR code I had there. It's, I wanted to replicate that and so if someone were to steal the socks, that's an interaction I could have been like well,
00:09:55
Speaker
This is the issue. Yeah, unfortunately that even happens to homeless people on the streets. People interact but not in a way that's useful. I remember seeing, I think this is before I even started planning the installation, someone had burned. I remember seeing a tent near the British Heart Foundation furniture shop in Lincoln.
00:10:17
Speaker
and around the back of it there was there used to be a tent there or like a sort of setup for someone and a few days later I'd seen it burnt down and it's that kind of if someone had stolen the socks it could have replicated sort of that sense of that interaction that unfortunately does happen to people so any sort of
00:10:39
Speaker
I don't know, consequences that would have happened to the installation. It could have had a message behind it anyway. So raining, falling, anything could be used essentially, but I was just incredibly lucky it was sunny. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Could have ended with soggy socks. Exactly. And then it would have had to wait and it probably would have fallen because it's only fishing wire. There's only so much it can hold. So yeah.
Collaboration with Charities and Impact
00:11:02
Speaker
So I also read as part of your project that you worked with Link in YMCA, am I correct? Yes. So what was the connection there? How did you develop the relationship and network this?
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, I wanted to, again, like I say, I wanted the socks to go somewhere eventually. So I was sort of looking at charities within Lincolnshire that do help homeless communities. And they were very much the most prominent one. And their Nomad Centre is almost one of the only ones I could have seen anyway that offer like service to people who literally come up on their doorstep and I need help and they will just be there to help.
00:11:40
Speaker
So to me, that was a very obvious choice to sort of give them socks that they would need. And they were very, they were so lovely. They were at every process of the way. They were interested in knowing what was going on. They came to the installation, took photos of me, spoke about it with me. And then again, I don't have a car. So taking 500 socks,
00:12:05
Speaker
to, I luckily live near YMCA, one of the Nomad Centre, and so I borrowed a, what do you call it, one of the trolleys that I use for open days at the university. Oh yeah, like a little wagon. Yep, and I, they were, again, they were so, everyone in the process was just so lovely doing this. I was allowed to borrow one for the whole day, took it to my house, loaded the socks on, and I went over, is it Pelham Bridge with this trolley, and it was just, oh, like,
00:12:38
Speaker
It was really nice and I spoke with them more about what they do and they said that the socks I'd given them would
00:12:47
Speaker
probably make them last for about six months. Wow. So it does go quite quickly but it it's it's like they say they people come in with the clothes that they have on and they want they're gonna need to wash those clothes and then it's nice to have something new as well so to have new socks it's something small but it's something so big to them exactly we would take that for granted I guess I really wanted to
00:13:17
Speaker
People are like, it's just socks, but I've become weirdly dedicated to socks and like realizing that like socks hold identity in themselves. They have holes in, they get lost. They, you wear odd socks. It's a weird, it's a weird thing and something that we take for granted. And yet people at YMCA were just so grateful to have them. And so it's, I'm hoping that the whole message is that just pause, think, do sort of thing and just,
00:13:48
Speaker
Contribute where you can because it's a lot easier than people think and the noma sent to a very That's one of their big things. They're like, it's just so easy to donate to us Like you can they should come to us give us anything that doesn't have to be a huge big donation It can just be anything and they'll take it and they'll go to someone who needs it
00:14:06
Speaker
nice to hear that although it only lasts six months at least some people will be having them for six months and yeah so if you're listening at home and you want to do something for this maybe think on your next clothes shopping extravaganza if you could just spare a little bit to buy like a pair of socks and go and hand them in because it obviously means really a lot to them. So
00:14:32
Speaker
Obviously, the people at home won't know this, but I do. This is all part of your course, isn't it?
Artistic Background and Future Aspirations
00:14:41
Speaker
So maybe you could explain a little bit more of that for the listeners at home. Yeah, again, not only were people confused by socks, a lot of people were like, wait, you do a creative writing degree? And I was like, yeah, I do a creative writing degree. And it's been really interesting because
00:15:00
Speaker
I used to feel like I needed to sort of justify that, but I sort of was like, well, it's going to a good cause anyway, but I also realized that the whole piece has a narrative in itself. Exactly, exactly. And it's, it's a story that is literally from conception to a sort of final ending. And, um, my mentor Dan was very supportive of this. He was like, yeah, it totally makes sense. Why not kind of thing. And so,
00:15:29
Speaker
as part of the degree, it's essentially my dissertation, I guess I'd say, for my MA creative writing. And I really hope it went well. This is why it's one of those things where
00:15:40
Speaker
A lot of dissertations, you can sort of plan, you can damage control anything, you can edit, you can do drafts. With a public installation, it's very much what happens on the day. So like, for example, every step I expected some sort of backlash, like getting onto the balconies, even though I'd organised with security, I'd organised with estates being like getting onto there.
00:16:04
Speaker
It was about an hour waiting and I was like, it's not gonna happen, it's not gonna happen. My whole installation in MA is ruined. But I eventually got on there and I was like, fine, it's cool. Then I was like, what if the socks fall down? Like, it was one of those things where I couldn't really...
00:16:18
Speaker
plan and other than sourcing the socks creating the installation not on the balconies it was very much on the day and i was there like of all three days i was like right up early can you see my socks they're still there cool go at night still there cool so it's it's a very different form of dissertation but i was i'm so glad i did it because again like me and dad were saying it was something i really wanted to do right so that
00:16:48
Speaker
students after me could be like oh it's something I can actually do like the uni allow this like and again it was one okay I didn't expect
00:16:58
Speaker
to be allowed to do it so at first when me and Dan spoke about it in November it was sort of like oh we'll see what the uni say we'll try and do it and nearly every step of the way they were really nice about it it was yeah it was just really cool i was like estates were like yeah just like send us your sort of
00:17:20
Speaker
plan about it, send us a health and safety thing, we'll have a panel meeting about it, they spoke about it, got back to me, yeah it's cool just make sure you've done all this, this, this, so I did that, got in contact with security, got in contact with the uni marketing team to make sure there was like no big event going on the same day and yeah it was just one of those things where you see the final product
00:17:43
Speaker
but there's a lot that happens in the before part so it's not just one final piece that's being marked, it's the whole process. It's a project that does keep going and opportunities like this, like doing a podcast, I'm being asked to like talk about it and so that's further exposure there as well and so despite the dissertation being
00:18:05
Speaker
technically over, I still got a reflection to do, it's something that will just keep on going, I think, and I would love to try and do more projects like it. And I get, again, I get jokes of people being like, yeah, you should do like underwear next. And I was like, why not? I mean, I might do under a different location. I've started applying to artist residencies to see if they'd be interested in something like that. Yeah, well, I'm happy to hear that it's not the end of this because
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's such a great cause and it's so creative what you're doing. And the inner artist in me is kind of gnawing away because I really want to know what your influences were behind this piece as like an artist. Were there any or was it just completely like, I just want to do this? Like, how did it work?
00:18:54
Speaker
I've always been a really big fan of public art. I love, I'm one of those people who will go to a public place with a friend and be like, take a picture of me in front of the thing. It's like from Instagram. I love that. And it's something that's a really good way of sharing someone's work.
00:19:12
Speaker
There's a mural by Sophie Mess on my street, because I live in St. Saul Bank and there's a St. Saul Bank art project. Yeah. And I literally live on one of the streets where Sophie Mess did her mural. And I just really love the idea of it being in a community like, I mean, university is a community, so bring something onto campus.
00:19:36
Speaker
like Sophie Mestid with Sinsel Bank, I thought although my thing won't be as permanent as her work is, I really like that element of doing something large scale because I've never done something large scale before. I've been very much smaller art projects so to do something on a big scale was kind of like, oh I made a mark, I did that. And I've always loved contemporary kind of art
00:20:03
Speaker
Like I love the tape modern. The tape modern is like one of my things. Whenever I'm in London I'll find a way to fit it in my day kind of thing. So I wanted to do something that wasn't in your face obvious art. I wanted something that was like this is my thing. You can take it or leave it. It's that. And yeah I think those are kind of my core influences I guess.
00:20:26
Speaker
that's amazing to hear yeah I think so many people they don't realize kind of like when you pass it it's like oh there's a narcissist behind that and they've done it for a reason like I think people just kind of become oblivious to it so another question is so for little budding artists should we say who are listening along to this
00:20:49
Speaker
Um, so obviously you've talked about how you've made all these connections and how you've kind of networked your way around it. Is this something you've always known how to do? Like, or is it something you've had to learn how to do? And if so, like, how did you learn how to do it? How did you make that step? Yeah, I, I had very little idea of what I was doing in, in all honesty, the whole process was entirely new. So it was.
00:21:17
Speaker
It was a good exercise in showing myself what I can do. And in terms of teaching myself to do it, it was a lot of trial and error in terms of what worked, what didn't work, which is why I started very much at the very beginning of when my MA started. I was like, right, let's go. Let's just try and do as much as we can because I know parts of it are going to go wrong.
00:21:42
Speaker
I'm going to try and get it so it goes right eventually in time for this dissertation hand-in. I mean if it was a project but not for dissertation I would have had so much time to sort of do trial and error and really perfect it and to be honest there are still things that could have gone better but in terms of teaching myself things I
00:22:04
Speaker
Definitely had the help of Dan, my dissertation mentor. He was very much like, contact these people, see who they suggest. And it was relying on people to tell me. So I remember sort of asking the SU, who do you recommend I ask? I asked like sustainability officers, events officers, I think as well from the SU, who do you think I should ask?
00:22:33
Speaker
they said, ask the estates, we'll give you an email. I had ask estates, do you know who to ask? And they're like, if you come to the right place, I'll CC in this person. So I had to remember a bunch of names. And it was, I have like, I'd star everything on my email being like, this is important, this is important. It became like every email was important. But it was, it was genuinely the help of people signposting me to the right spaces.
00:22:59
Speaker
And just having that confidence to ask people like, I don't know what I'm doing. I want to do this though. Like the faith in the project carried me through to ask people even if I thought it was going to go wrong. So. And with every time it went right, it just built my confidence more and being like, yeah, okay. It really is not as easy as asking people for help, but asking people for help gets you a long way. So.
00:23:25
Speaker
Before the project, I knew very little, and now I still don't know a lot, but I know a lot more than I did at the beginning. Yeah, so I'm kind of interested to know who you are as an artist. Since you've been doing creative writing, have you kind of
00:23:45
Speaker
is creative writing still something you want to do or is it kind of are you going more down the route of kind of like art installation kind of fine art sort of aspect I guess. I think the project has shown me that
00:24:01
Speaker
Career writing isn't my only option now. It's still something I I love doing like I'm I kind of call myself a multidisciplinary artist because I'm still a So young and be no clue. I'd want to specialize in if anything at all So I don't think the project has kind of been like I'm now an installation artist. This is what I do now it's
00:24:29
Speaker
it's something I enjoy doing and I would definitely do it again but it hasn't made me call myself sort of I'm not a poet or a writer anymore I'm a lot of different things which is it's hard for me because I'm someone who likes to sort of shoehorn myself being like I am this this is what I do I will not focus on this
00:24:50
Speaker
So the MA has sort of teased that out of me and made me be like, I can do different things and I don't have to be only one thing. Even if, for example, you get given a mentor who specialises one thing, I don't have to do that one thing forever. So I definitely want to do more installation projects and I'm definitely still going to keep writing as well though.
00:25:15
Speaker
everything. Let's talk about the educational side because it is a key thing because it's what you're learning and things like that.
Personal Growth and Artistic Confidence
00:25:25
Speaker
So talk a little bit about your undergrads because we talked a lot about your masters. Let's talk about your undergrads.
00:25:30
Speaker
So I did an English and creative writing joint undergrad, which was, it was interesting even just to see how those went hand in hand because the approaches in terms of teaching were very different. English traditional sort of lectures, workshops, not even workshops, lectures, seminars.
00:25:49
Speaker
discussing the pieces of work and for me anyway that wasn't as fulfilling as i would have wanted it because i didn't myself feel like i get anything from that side because i'm i realized through the undergrad i'm very much someone who likes to produce things and producing essays about the work wasn't enough for me i needed to make something that was purely from me
00:26:09
Speaker
The creative writing part of the undergrad was not what I expected when I applied. It was in a very good way. It was extremely experimental and it was really good learning blocks in terms of
00:26:25
Speaker
both what you want to be as a writer and just the general skills of writing and the writers or slash artists in my case voice and producing work and getting that workshop amongst peers and
00:26:41
Speaker
the lecturers themselves who have their own professional lives as well who can contribute to our work as well. So having those two different worlds side by side was it was it was interesting because I felt like I got a good balance of the traditional way of uni delivery and both doing workshopping and creative writing. So
00:27:05
Speaker
it was a good sort of dipping my feet into different parts of writing and then for the MA it was a lot more specialised and yet still open in terms of what would you like to do because in my undergrad I didn't do anything like my MA piece I did a lot of just physical writing I did
00:27:27
Speaker
The most experimental thing I did was probably experimental poetry and that's where I started to branch into a bit more art side so I'd sort of do cut up so I'd cut out different parts and make a poem out of them and put them onto physical pieces that would create an almost, it would be physical poetry.
00:27:45
Speaker
and then the MA started and I was seeing all of my peers do different things as well and it kind of made me realize that I can do so many different things that aren't seen as traditional creative writing per se and yet it still has elements of the creative writing course in it. For example even just doing the sort of writing emails to people that took my creative writing skills to
00:28:17
Speaker
not persuade them to give me socks, but to sound like I know what I'm doing and convince them to be like, oh, this is a really project we want to get behind. So those skills definitely came into this as well. And also I had to write a manifesto for the sock piece. So in order to
00:28:43
Speaker
make that manifesto sound how I wanted it, first of all, and to make it sound, because I wanted it to be really informative. I wanted it to be creative and informative. So to combine those two things, I needed the creative writing skills I gathered, both in undergrad and in post-grad, just to make that come across. So it was an installation piece, but it was so many different components relied on that teaching from both undergrad and masters. Wow. So
00:29:15
Speaker
Obviously from education it comes to employability and we're taught about it a lot in kind of education and kind of, especially at university. And there's the sort of soft skills, hard skills, specialised skills. I'm interested to find out what skills that you think you have developed throughout this. So not necessarily for employability skills, but even just for you as an artist and a person.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, even though even then employability skills is a huge thing on the MA career writing. It's like there's a whole module called business of writing where you have to
00:29:52
Speaker
decide how you're how you're selling yourself as a writer or artist and for example I had to research and I did interviews with installation artists and I had to ask them how did you build up your career and to see how they started in a similar position to me and then grew their career into where it is now for me to see that it was really
00:30:19
Speaker
really good to see what steps I can take myself to get to that point. So employability skills, it's made me see it as even a possibility to do what I want to do if I do want to be an artist or if I do want to be a writer. For me, I'm a sort of a visual person, so to have someone tell me these are the exact steps I took, I was like, oh, it is possible because I've been shown that timeline.
00:30:47
Speaker
But skills for me from the project and MA, I think the biggest thing is confidence, because I was not a confident person. Even before coming to uni, I had confidence because I always thought I was a very analytical person. I did not think of myself as that creative. I wanted to be. I think that's what kind of pulled me towards doing the degree. But the degree itself showed me that I actually am quite a creative person. I enjoy
00:31:15
Speaker
coming up with creative solutions to problems so having that almost to give to employers be like I don't necessarily come up with the first obvious solution but I can come up with a more creative solution that could potentially work better is something I've definitely learned especially with the socks because so much could have gone wrong and it has to do a lot of damage control that didn't even need to be used but having that sort of
00:31:46
Speaker
adaptability yeah being and i used to be such a rigid person i was like if it if it does this it's wrong all that's done of course rapid i could do again going with the flow and trusting the process was very much a skill i've learned that the skill i've learned and also
00:32:06
Speaker
that it can be okay, that it can go well.
Advice for Aspiring Artists
00:32:10
Speaker
So, yeah. I think sometimes as artists we get a little bit bogged down with the perfectionism of it. And I know that I'm definitely like that as an artist. I'm like, oh no, I've done something wrong. It's completely gone. And everyone around you are like, it's fine. It's fine. You're like, no, it's not. It's not who I want it to be. It's not my vision. It's not my vision. And then sometimes it even ends up being better than your vision turns out to be. So yeah, I completely, completely agree with that.
00:32:36
Speaker
So a bit of a weird question now, but we're artists, we like weird. Is there a weird or embarrassing story that you've had as an artist? Because I think as artists we all have to deal with these. And so I think it's nice to know that there's other artists out there who've had it too.
00:32:58
Speaker
I am very grateful for the BBC asking me questions on my project but it was a very odd like I was wearing boots at the time so I kind of understand why but during the interview he was like ah yes socks socks I love socks are you wearing socks right now I can see you're wearing boots I don't
00:33:14
Speaker
I like to think I'm quite good at answering questions, but I kind of just went like, yeah, I'm wearing socks. I'm wearing odd socks. Isn't that kind of funky? And he was just like, okay, next question. So I mean, and to be honest, any, any questions to do with the socks in general, like why socks? It's been, at first I was very embarrassed by it. Cause I was like, Oh, maybe like having your project immediately put into question of why, when it's not even really started yet is very,
00:33:42
Speaker
nerve-wracking because you're like I don't even know if I have belief in my own project yet and yet I'm already being questioned on whether it's valid so it's having faith in the project has and having that build over time has definitely conquered the embarrassing sort of like yeah it sucks deal with it yeah that kind of thing yeah I like socks like yeah no I completely get that um
00:34:05
Speaker
Again, I'm going to go back to our little budding artists out there. And we love you, budding artists. We do. We need more of you. And what tips would you give if you could sum up like a few tips? Would you give to little budding artists out there? I think the first thing you're really going to have to tackle for a young artist is getting over the hump of
00:34:32
Speaker
can I do it like it's sort of I think confidence is one of those things like you don't think you have it until you start doing something so do something kind of thing even if you kind of have to get over that sense of it will it will just go wrong it has to go wrong otherwise you will like there is no artist where it goes right every like from the very start of their career to the end there are always mistakes and so I
00:34:55
Speaker
don't take those mistakes personally just take them as lessons because you will become a better artist every time a mistake happens so mistakes at first feel crushing but they're necessary. What else do I- what do I- I'm trying to think what I wish I'd known. That's always a good place to start. Yeah I think I wish I had known
00:35:24
Speaker
It's so hard now that it's done. This is the thing, at this point I'm not relieved it's done. I'm relieved because I expected so much to go wrong. And maybe one or two things went quote unquote wrong, but they weren't devastating. And I think that is something that artists do a lot. We seem to see every mistake as devastating the end of the world, the end of the project, scrap it.
00:35:51
Speaker
Never, never throw anything away is what I'd say to an artist. Don't, whether that's drafts, whether that's pieces of work, don't throw things away. Keep it. Even if you start anew, keep the old because it will always come back to sort of either help with a new project, you'll start again with the scraps you've left and
00:36:14
Speaker
everything is just useful and also just rely, like trust and help from others because it's terrifying to ask but you get so far ahead just by asking people and so many people are willing to help. Yeah. Like you don't think they are and I know a lot of artists become protective of their piece which is fully fab because I only trusted like one other person to help me install it because I was like you understand the importance of my project we're gonna do it. She unfortunately had, which we realized at the time,
00:36:41
Speaker
um fear of heights which we realized on the balcony she was like i kind of forgot and i was like it's fine we've got this and we adapted around that and i was like i'll just take the top balcony we'll we'll do this and she we figured out she wasn't so afraid when she had headphones on but music came so i'd be like i'm hanging the socks down now she's like okay headphones on feed them through so again everything is adaptable i guess is what i would say to a younger artist like
00:37:09
Speaker
Once you get over that confidence hump, you will keep feeling like an imposter no matter what you create. That's a big thing we actually spoke about in our MA, the imposter syndrome that even the lecturers feel that they're like, why am I here? And I should not be surrounded by all these creative people. You've built your place there and you are worthy of being there. You can literally get up one day and say, I'm an artist. You're allowed to do that.
00:37:40
Speaker
Imposter syndrome sucks, but everyone has it. So don't feel like you're the only fool in the room because everyone's feeling the same way kind of thing. That's true. I think every artist at some point has felt like an imposter, especially when it comes to your own work. Because you're thinking, well, how is something that I created as this little tiny little seed growing to be something so big?
00:38:05
Speaker
yeah no matter how big the thing like literally i just put up the socks and me and dam were looking at it and he was like yeah you did it and i was like i don't know if i did and i'm literally looking at it as i'm talking to him i was like hmm i know they're up there but did i do that yeah so i mean no matter what you do and no matter how big the project is even if you feel that imposter syndrome you keep keep going with what you want to do and if it if it's something you want to do
00:38:34
Speaker
then just do it. I know it sounds as easy as that sounds like easy enough. Yeah just do it Lola. Yeah exactly but it's sometimes it is a bit of faking until you make it because I would be doing these things that Dan would pretend like yeah email these people email them and I'd be like okay they're gonna say no though but I'll do it and I'd be surprised because someone would be like yeah I'll help you. So do things despite yourself telling don't sometimes because yeah it can be a good result. Yeah I think as well like
00:39:03
Speaker
when you come to university you're like not in your comfort zone anyway and then to be pushed further as an artist out of your comfort zone it's like sometimes it feels like a bit too much yeah but then yeah i think you learn to get out your comfort zone and you create the best work when you're out and you only do that from actually doing things because if you do nothing then you have no evidence to tell yourself later well i did do that because now i can be like yeah i literally hung 200 socks off manoeu
00:39:28
Speaker
You did that once, you can now do this next thing you want to do. If you don't have that sort of experience to base yourself on, even if it went wrong, you can't fight that confidence or imposter syndrome without experience of any kind. So you kind of need to start doing things. Just do things, anything. So can we expect to see these socks in other locations or is it just the Lincoln shit?
00:39:57
Speaker
Ooh, I would love to. I really want to. I wish I wasn't just finishing my MA now because it's one of the things I wish I'd started earlier. I wish I'd started doing creative things in my undergrad to this scale, but I'm hoping to do a lot more installations
00:40:18
Speaker
at least in the UK no matter where I end up finding myself because I think that's something as a postgraduate you kind of once you're leaving you're like I don't even know where I'm going to be in a year because everything's up in the air but wherever I find myself I really want to keep
00:40:35
Speaker
sort of combining whatever the societal issue is in that area at the time with creative thought. So there will be other installations. There will be. It depends on where I am.
00:40:50
Speaker
Well thank you so much for coming to speak to us Ellie and it's been a pleasure talking to you about all things arty. So we like to kind of promote other artists and we want to get their names out there. So do you have any social handles you would like to read out? Oh goodness, I do. I do indeed. I have a website. Oh I do. We love a good website as an artist. We love a good website. If you
00:41:17
Speaker
type in lnafatherly.squarespace. You'll find not only my sock project, but you'll also find work I did for Fashion Revolution as well, which also happened this year. So a combination of my work will just be on there and also future projects will be put on there as well. Other than my professional Instagram, which is like you say, at lnafatherly, I also have a Twitter, which is at Ellie underscore fatherly.
00:41:47
Speaker
That's perfect. So if you're listening, go follow Ellie. She's a brilliant artist and we cannot wait to see more of her work.