Kirsty Mitchell
- Dec 9, 2024
- 3 min read
Awareness Post
12/9/24
Kirsty Mitchell is a British fine art photographer and a multi face artist. She uses her experience in fashion design and costume making to create images straight out of a fantasy world. Her work takes months of work with delicate costumes, props, and sets that are all extremely detailed.
Timeline:
At 16, she began her higher level education studying fine art, photography and history of art.
At 19 she specialised in 'Costume for Performance' at the London College of Fashion, gaining a Higher National Diploma with Distinction.
Kirsty went on to train at Ravensbourne College of Art for a further 3 years achieving a First Class Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours in fashion design and textiles. During this time she interned at the studios of the British avant garde designers Alexander McQueen (1999 - 2000) and Hussein Chalayan (2000-2001), she graduated in 2001 at the age of 25.
Kirsty spent the next decade working as a fashion designer, specialising in surface decoration and fabric manipulation, learning in depth the crafts of beading and embroidery whilst spending time in India and China. During this period at the age of 32, Kirsty rediscovered her passion for photography and began a new and deeply emotional connection with the medium throughout the treatment of her mother's terminal cancer in.
Kirsty's Collections
Wonderland:
Wonderland is her 5 year series following the death of her mother and how photography helped her deal with this overwhelming grief. Her journey started in 2009 as she was inspired by the fading memories of the novels her mother Maureen had read to her as a kid, the project, she explains, is a therapy, an other world full of creativity, longing, as well as the anguish of her loss. As it progressed, it became an autobiographical journey in which the main character, Katie, reflected Kirsty's emotional state in the actual world.
The photographs became viral and received widespread media coverage and gained a global fan base of over 450,000 followers onlinr. At the end of 2011, Kirsty ultimately gave up her fashion profession to focus on finishing the collection and creating the Wonderland book due to the increasing tasks involved in the project and the great praise she received for her efforts.
Quiescence
In September 2019, Kirsty was printing her second book in Italy when she found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with cancer. Her son was just 8 months at the time. She described the time following her diagnosis from being the darkest in her life. She had to go through surgery, radiotherapy, and then 5 years of gruelling hormone therapy.
'Quiescence' is the new series that Kirsty started to carefully prepare at this time to help her take in her experiences and it is still currently in the works. The term "quiescence" indicates a state of dormancy or quiet, which is how Kirsty emotionally characterizes the changes that have occurred in her life and profession since receiving her diagnosis. In human biology, the phrase refers to cells that stop functioning but can reactivate when given the correct stimulus, which in Kirsty's case was art.
Based on Kirsty's pregnancy, the development of life in the womb, her sudden diagnosis of cancer and her eventual recovery, the project will be divided into three chapters. It will be transformed into a fantasy story that is based on actual occurrences, much like Wonderland.
I love Kirsty's art as her pieces show a fantasy landscape where her imagination and creativity can be seen. I lover the incorporation of her colors and the pale white color of the models in her work to show contrast. I believe that this adds to the surreal nature of her pieces and I loved the bright colors she uses especially in "The Pure Blood of a Blossom". While Kirsty's art is through photography, I think her compositions are beautiful and similar to my art. She used surreal compositions that incorporate and exaggerated person along with nature, especially flowers. I believe I can use her compositions to influence my art as well as use her colors as inspiration for my palette.
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