Artist in Residence - Issue Four

Holly Chilton

Holly works on a farm, putting up fences with a tractor, a chainsaw, and a big drill. She has three pet sheep, called Barbra, Martin and Winnie. Her sweetest, most stupid dog is Shane McGowan, her most evil and clever dog is Jodie Foster. There are newts in her pond and bats in her attic.

She has had short stories published internationally, online and in print, though not for a little while.

She has worked as a mural artist and an illustrative artist, completing various commissions over the years. This rarely pays.

Away from drawing and writing, her favourite thing to do is go to obscure festivals with her daughter.

She lives in Dorset UK, with ten sheepdogs altogether, and her best friend.

  • My mum has a book that I wrote and illustrated when I was around nine years old. It’s about a little girl who can’t sit still, and definitely has some plagiarism issues. Even though I’ve been drawing and writing since I was a kid, I still struggle to define myself as a creative out loud, though if you took that part of me away, all that would be left is dog hair and toast crumbs. Maybe a few rusty nails. 

  • Working with other people's stories was a positive process, altogether. Having a brief and a deadline to work towards goes a long way to drowning out the internal voice that points out all the faults and failings that come along with being alone, staring at paper and not touching grass for a prolonged period of time.

    I had my favourite stories, the ones where I immediately thought, I can see you. In a funny way though, it's the ones that feel more challenging, less like something I might write, that end up being oddly liberating to illustrate. 

    I wanted to be quite literal with this project, interpreting something from each story that was clear and obvious. I love fairy tales and children's books that are on the stranger side, and that probably comes through in these pictures.

  • It’s an image that has been knocking around for a while, in various forms. I drew it initially as a tattoo design, with the words ‘Come with me, imagination,’ trailing behind the witch. That’s a line from a Lisa O’Neill song.

    I really like witches. History has been afraid of a woman casting off traditional nurturing expectations, perhaps taking up her cleaning implements like weapons, and subverting them. One of my favourite paintings is Dulle Griet, or Mad Meg, by Pieter Bruegel, because she is greedy and unashamed.

    The combination of being an outsider and flying on a broom, it’s pretty potent. Fear of women persists, as we age and come into our power, often realising we’ve been shouldering various kinds of shit our whole lives, shit we can throw down. Did you know an older term for a spinster is thornback? I think we should own that and fly with it!

  • Oddity, darkness, loneliness, and dark nature. Intersectional feminist perspectives. Witches. Sprayed inks. Pretty colours used violently.  Queerness, increasingly.

  • Not really. I make big drawings with charcoal, paintings with oil, and fiddly small work, with ink and pencils. The work here has been the latter. My unfavoured medium would be a hard pencil, or a waxy crayon. Also, I’m learning linocut printing, and she’s a cruel mistress.

  • Escape from the void, haha. I don’t know where or who I’d be if I couldn’t retreat into drawing and writing. I always feel on the outside of things and producing something creative is my way of connecting with the world. If I’m not doing art of some kind, I’m most likely not doing very well generally, and someone should maybe check in.

    Other than that, I am endlessly inspired by other artists - Kiki Smith, Paula Rego, Jesse Darling, Ana Mendieta, Maurice Sendak, William Blake, David Lynch, Black Phillip…

  • My process for creating the art for Issue 4 was the one familiar to me - that of inspiration, procrastination, more inspiration, panic, then working at it furiously. I tend to get so immersed in a project that I fail to eat anything green or conduct any form of exercise for five to ten business days. I tell myself next time will be different and then it never is. Luckily I have to also work outside and feed animals, so there is some balance.

    I sketch out initial plans for each illustration, then once the composition and lines are how I want them, I use a lightbox to draw this onto the final piece, where I add colour and detail. The actual image making is pretty primitive. 

    For this project, I listened to gothic doom music in the good times (Cwfen are great, so are King Woman. Ethel Cain's last album is super weird in a good way). Podcasts help, when the internal voice won't quiet down, (You Are Good, where the host routinely tells you "Don't forget that YOU ARE GOOD" is especially soothing). I prefer grim silence in the moments when I spill tea on a drawing, or have a hangover, or can't draw evil seals for the life of me.

    I have managed to make my own creative process a profoundly solitary experience, and so working collaboratively, even at a remove like this, is fun. I think every story included here is brilliant and unique, and I am honoured to have framed each with something to look at.

  • Well visual art is a lot easier to see through to finishing! 

    Writing is like an emotionally abusive lover or something- they’re really beautiful and violent at the same time, and when it’s good, it’s so good. You can’t ever find a way to break up with them totally, even though keeping them in the house is giving you terrible frown lines, unresolved stomach problems, and bad knees. 

    Making visual art, contrastingly, feels like being fed; a kindly gay elder feeding you lovely delicious pie by the fire, curled up in your flannelette pyjamas. 

    Or it feels like striding through the city at night, a couple of drinks in, wearing something chic and totally unafraid of the dark.

    I honestly don’t know how people manage in this world without living in their heads at least sixty percent of the time, I mean I just find it so hard! How can you not retreat to fantasy for comfort?

  • For my own wellbeing I avoid social media, and self promotion feels like shame, though it shouldn’t, for any of us who aren’t grifting politicians.

    I do have Instagram, where I will post again (will I though?) You can find a link to my (currently barren) website there. The website is called Holly Hoovers, because I just had a hard couple of years and worked as a house cleaner for a while. I don’t know how to change the name and actually, I kind of like it. There is a tab on there where I promise to respect your home when I’m in it, which, without the context of cleaning services, makes me sound like a ghost who’s coming over, one who promises no harm.

    You can Google my names, either Holly Chilton or Holly Beynon, and a couple of stories are still available online. 

    My Insta handle is: sketchylittlevermin https://www.instagram.com/sketchylittlevermin/