Maria Hallewell-Pearson - BA (Hons) Illustration with Animation
Maria is a multi-media artist with a foundation of drawing. They work with a range of different materials and processes stemming from this foundation - printmaking, painting, sketching, bookmaking, modelling, digital editing, textiles, photography, occasional collage. They are concerned with capturing mood and atmosphere through colour and texture as well as through content, leading to a partly medium and process driven approach.
Expression is an aim in everything they make. This can be on small, personal scales, or big existential scales, and can be through purely mood-based pieces or more narrative and illustrative pieces. In everything, they are interested in relationships and connections, both in content and themes. For example, the relationships between creepy and appealing, magic and reality, sadness and hope, lost and found, anger and love, whimsy and seriousness. The meeting of the human and non-human is a central motif in their work and can be a vehicle for many ideas and messages. They are very inspired by the natural world and, as an extension, concerned with the political and human context around it; their values and vegan outlook on the world are an inspiration and anchor throughout. Animals, creatures, humanoid things, bodies, trees, landscapes, and fluid, expressive shapes form a visual backbone for emotional expression, messaging and story telling.
