Like most artists, Rachel's artistic journey began with a pen and notepad in hand. Though unlike the standard narrative of such an origin story, Rachel would use her stationary to not sketch but to scribe. 'Growing up I always wanted to be an author... but I'd always get too invested in the meat of the story and never be able to finish it.' Yet it was this desire to capture the most exciting bits of her imaginary tales that sparked her artistic interest. So, over the course of a short while, the young Rachel not only began to write about the most 'meat(y)' parts of her stories but capture them through art - which as you'll see, proved to be just as imaginative.
Untitled - Paper and Digital Art by Rachel Hughes
I first met Rachel to discuss her artwork in Cardiff and briefly wandering through the bustling city centre provided us with an ideal chance to walk and talk. Much like the artworks found in this 8th Edition, cities are but human-altered versions of the earths landscape and as we traversed through the city's intricately built Victorian arcades, and along it's high streets, it was fascinating to see for myself how such aspects, from consumer goods to bits of architecture, are incorporated into Rachel's mind-bending works. Continuing to write stories as a child, Rachel gradually began to add visual elements to her tales by utilising the now age old Windows XP (early 2000s computer softwares, where users could visually create things on screen in real time using the likes of Microsoft Paint) and hence was founded her fondness for digital art. Perhaps unsurprisingly then by the time it came to her GCSE's it was art and not literature that had taken hold. So, over the course of her studies, the teenage Rachel became fascinated by watercolours and how they could be layered to for various depths and evoke subsequent emotions. Wanting to further experiment with this interest, Rachel, inspired by the likes of Joseph Cornell (an artist famous for his use of assemblage, such as twigs and old maps), began to layer her artwork by using physical elements, extracted from magazine clippings and soon enough became a keen sketch-booker. Though, this is not to say that she had lost her love for her literal style of story-telling.
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