Annabel Cooper is a printmaker (at last).

I studied Fine Art Sculpture at Brighton University many years ago. I chose sculpture because I only seemed to be offered sculpture or painting as art options and I really can’t paint! Despite choosing sculpture my work tended to be paper-based, embossing, photography and text art. I worked for a few years making the mock-ups and models for a book design company which was a wonderful job, which didn’t offer enough money to survive. So I decided to retrain as a plumber; that would allow me to afford to find time for art, right? No, life got in the way and I forgot for a good while that I am an artist who happens to be good at plumbing. A few years ago life got difficult and I remembered.

With help and encouragement from a successful printmaking friend of mine I took up reduction linocuts. A reduction linocut destroys the printing plate as it is produced, so the edition of prints is limited to the initial amount. Each different colour layer is printed on top of the last by removing parts of the lino as you print each layer. It’s a laborious process which I love. 

I have always produced art that deals with identity, and the lost at sea series carries on that theme. The characters offer some information as to their identity, inviting the observer to wonder at their story and how they may have gotten lost.