Professional Practice

 Georgia Fry  

Georgia Fry is a visual artist who’s currently living and working in Nottingham. Georgia spent a large portion of her childhood life living in a small village in Spain and she described this time of her life as particularly slow and simple. Georgia began studying art whilst living in Spain at a Spanish art school but felt she was only able to complete the first year due to other circumstances. At the age of 18 Georgia moved back to uk by herself, choosing Nottingham as a place to live and continue her studies. Here she did her foundation year in fine art and enjoyed it but still felt her art was all over the place. After this she began studying A decorative arts degree at Uni where she really began to find her artistic style, She mentioned how she became process driven within her work and began playing with fabric wearable art that drew inspiration from her time in Spain and the heavy religious iconography she witnessed. During her time at uni she got a sponsorship by Speedo, so she was sent lots of lycra fabrics and such that really drived the textile sides of her work forward. However around this time she went through a few personal difficulties that caused her to quit uni, she mentioned this was both a bad and good thing as she was now free to brake off bad relationships, start therapy and quit smoking, which ultimately all helped her. She worked in Floristry for a while which was still creative but ultimately not what she wanted to do. Then of course Covid and lockdown hit, but due to lack of work she found this a good time to get back into creating again, during this time she also found that she wanted to go back to college to explore a new route and she became a qualified Handi-Woman. She found that becoming an electrician really gave her the space she to delve back into her creative world on the side. She found that her artwork was no longer controlled by the stress of financial issues so she could just create and share how she wanted. She now has a studio at the surface gallery and is ever creating when she has time. Georgia's work spans a wide range, with a focus on colour, and simplicity but she also has a huge focus community and outside work.

I found Georgia Frys talk and story to be one of the most helpful and positively memorable talks out of all of them. Georgia was very real in the struggles she experienced navigating her own art world but spoke to us in a way that conveyed that we shouldn't be afraid to experience these difficulties and perhaps embrace them as it can navigate your art and artistic world into a place that will work much better for you as an individual, whether that be working a different job, taking time out or exploring other routes completely.