Drawing from global influences, folk art and crafts, multi-disciplinary artist Abigail Brown captures myth and magic in her menagerie of fantastical creatures.

Travel is clearly an important aspect of your craft - You draw heavily from global influences and folk heritage from across the world. Where do you take your influences from and what is it about these sources that keep you inspired again and again?

I've always loved the handmade; being able to see the marks of the maker, to sense a soul in an object, a history it holds. I think that's the main draw to me in folk art and crafts, knowing the care and attention someone took in creating that object, learning about the stories that envelop it, what they explain about the culture it comes from.

The objects I gather on my travels keep me away in those places when I'm back at home, they are a constant source of inspiration for me and the work I want to create.

I'm not from a religious family so we don't have ceremonies, stories, beliefs or traditions as such... But there's something about the spiritual that draws me and I'm particularly fascinated by cultures, ancient and modern, who have a greater respect for nature and whose gods take on the form of animals. Myth and Magic is definitely a running theme through my work over the years.

Your work uses a whole range of crafts, techniques and materials. How do you go about choosing the medium for a new project and what pushes you to keep adapting your work with new skills?

I’ve reached a time in my life where all the things that held me back previously don't bother me anymore, and I'm not bothered if I make a mistake or I don't succeed at something, or feel foolish for trying. I'd been working in the same medium making the same things for so many years and there just wasn't the same joy in it anymore for me so I just started exploring whatever took my fancy to try.

Wood was the first experiment, inspired by a lot of the folk art I have collected but also by makers working today. I spoke to a few different makers to learn what tools I would need to buy and began playing around with the wood I could source myself for free. I took an evening class in ceramics and would love to dedicate more time to that but sadly ceramics requires so much expensive equipment and suitable studio space that has had to be put on hold a bit for now. In it's absence I bought some chicken wire and plaster and tried scaling up what I was exploring in clay but that's such a messy process and during lock down working from home I couldn't continue with that so I started building cardboard forms and taking my paper mâché work to a different place with giant animal head masks and costumes.

2020 has been a truly awful year for so many reasons but the one positive thing I've been able to take from it has been an opportunity to step back from the work I have to make and explore whatever came to mind. There's a real thirst/hunger/drive in me to just keep exploring and see where it may lead! Setting myself these fun little pointless projects throughout the year has been what's really kept me sane and distracted from all the anxiety that's been constantly simmering below the surface.

You often choose to depict endangered animals as your subject matter. How important to you is it to put across an environmental message in your work?

I don't do it enough really and one of my aims going forward is to make that a more central part of my practice. We are at risk of losing so much of our incredible Animal Kingdom and part of the problem has to be people's lack of awareness of it all. All these wondrous species that exist and are hardly known about so the threats they face are even further from people's minds. I definitely want my work to give them a connection to it all, hopefully encourage them to get involved in supporting the organisations and people out there protecting those species and habitats.

You only have to watch one of David Attenborough's fabulous nature documentaries to be utterly awe inspired by the planet we call home... There's such great beauty and magic out there that's all here just like us through total luck. We don't stop enough to step back and appreciate it!

This year has been a huge challenge for us all! Have you seen this reflected in your work or your design process?

I've been incredibly lucky that my work/sales haven't stopped but they've definitely taken a hit at times this past year and it makes me a little worried about my future, but all I can do is keep charging forwards, keeping myself inspired and creative and exploring new ideas with passion, believing it will connect with somebody somewhere and hopefully keep propelling me forwards.

I'm definitely aware that there's a reconnect with the handmade and that people are valuing these things more greatly for all the reasons I myself have always loved handmade objects. People don't want cheap throwaway soulless items, more and more they're investing in pieces that spark joy for them, that they know they'll treasure for years to come. In that way I can only continue to keep making the work I feel most passionately to make, and hope that my customers continue to appreciate and connect with my work and want a piece of it for themselves.

What's next for you in 2021?

I had grand visions for the huge animal head masks that I haven't yet been able to bring to fruition so I hope this year I can do that... costumes, lighting, photography and video... They are Animal Gods carrying a message that still needs communicating!

I'd begun exploring mixing mediums but not got that far with it yet so that's another goal, along with increasing the scale.

There's also some jewellery experiments underway with a jeweller friend that had to be put on hold due to covid so I hope to move forward with that exciting project too! Let's see!

You can find more of Abigail’s work at abigail-brown.co.uk