My first real experience of actually practising art was at college, my teacher encouraged us to be free with a paint brush and with colour itself; To use different textures and surfaces as my canvas. We would explore movement with timed exercises, being told to make lines on the paper as we followed a moving figure as it travelled across the room in 20 seconds. I fell in love with the mindful and rich play it suddenly introduced me to. 

The world completely opened up when I moved on to do a foundation at Camberwell, specialising in fine art. I remember watching foreign films at the Piccadilly on a Friday at 10am - as part of the curriculum! - sitting amongst the bitter smell of linseed oil whilst I tried to put to paper what was in my head, impromptu conversations with French men that were older than me and the all-year-round-leak in the corner of the room divided into white cells. We were encouraged to see things from different perspectives, draw with our left hands, paint with our eyes closed and generally do what feels unnatural. 

Wandering around the art schools twenty years later brought back that sense of opportunity and futures unknown. That tinny sound and clouded chemical smell that lingers in the air, seeing art technicians in big studios filled with canvases, machinery and tubes of colour. What a luxury it is to have someone on hand at all times to teach you whatever you want to know - photography, lighting, screen printing, pottery.

When I saw Kitty’s work for the first time, I was struck by the organic and gentle quality to her ceramics. Her considered approach and investigation into the complexities of the human condition as well as exploring narratives around the self & family,  are subjects that I have a deep, personal resonance to me. Kitty herself is thoughtful, smart and has a rigour to her ideas and method. It’s been a pleasure to work with her.

At Caro, we are drawn to the objects that tell a story, that provide a reason for something being in our lives. Working with artists and designers on creative projects - sharing ideas, seeing how they work and how a concept can come to be something we appreciate, is integral to what we do as a business and a team. Having always been interested in Identity, I am empathetic to this transformative stage of life when you’re leaving formal education and embarking on a life which on the one hand is driven my your own hand, but on the other hand is delivered by fate. I am so excited to be launching Fledgling, something which I hope will be a springboard for young artists and designers, at such a defining time of their life. 

Exhibition | October 8th-10th 2022

@kittymillsartwork

kittymillsstudio.com

 Image credits from top

Image 1 @forestandfound

Image 2 @forestandfound

Image 3 Artist @kittyhillier / Photographer @davewatts