Alison Lilley Berrett
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Journey to the Ark T
When I was a child I had a deep frustration with drawing. I didn’t know what I wanted to draw but I knew I wanted to express something. In 1987 at the age of 20 I went to Exeter College of Art and Design to study Graphic Design. This was a humiliating and demoralising experience. After two years of torture I was finally released when, with the encouragement of my parents, husband and tutors I changed courses to do Fine Art. This was the beginning of an exciting realisation that the things I hoped for deeply, could happen.
In 2002 Marc and I decided that we would go for our third and last child and try to find a bigger house with studio space. With our house on the market we found a place that seemed perfect. In October 2002 disaster struck and I dramatically lost our baby 13 weeks into the pregnancy and nearly lost my own life. Two months later our street flooded, we lost our sale and consequently lost the house we were buying. During this time my mother’s health deteriorated and in February 2003 she died and I was utterly broken. I didn’t know how I would possibly recover from all of this.
However, the sun came out that year and amazing things began to happen. At the beginning of November I received a phone call from Modern Art Oxford to say that my work had been chosen for The Oxford Show in February 2004. I moved into a studio in Cowley Road a week later. The Oxford Show was a huge success. I won the Trevor Osbourne prize of a solo exhibition and had a wonderful year, painting and drawing with energy and purpose.
During the autumn of 2004 Kate Cunningham told me there was a vacant shed/studio at the ArkT, so in February 2005 I moved in. I have loved being here as I have my own space and can be involved with Ark T projects and work with other artists. I find it really helpful not to be isolated as an artist but to work in a community.
1. ‘Ode to Joy’
2. ‘Arches & Shadows’
3. ‘Green Sweep’
4. ‘A New Day’
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