Studio Visit with Liz Geenty
In anticipation of This is Art Soc!, our exhibition coordinator Elizabeth joined featured artist and Art Society committee member, Liz Geenty, for a studio visit in her home in St Andrews.
photo credit: Liz Geenty. artwork by Liz Geenty, Amelie Platon, Meli Campbell, Camille Crozat, Jennifer Worswick Irving-Bell and Gemma Laker.
Liz primarily works from her St Andrews student flat, adapting her living space for display and as a studio. The abundance of natural light and wall space allow for both the visual planning of her pieces and the display of finished pieces.
Her collage journey began in her childhood with scrapbooks recording theatre trips in New York and time with friends, later evolving with a more intentional artistic focus into her current style of collage. Liz mixes found paper scraps, personal ephemera, and photographs. Despite the less journalistic format, her practice still seeks to record her own experiences. This emotional reflection is evident as she recalls stories behind her pieces, pointing out paper scraps from her time studying abroad in Australia, and cut-outs of photos taken on trips with loved ones.
Liz’s involvement with the Art Society began in second year at St Andrews through attending weekly life drawing. She has since been to several workshops and events, has been featured in several Art Society exhibitions, and is currently on committee as a member-without-portfolio. Additionally, Liz runs her own student art company, check out The Art Project here!
photo credit: Liz Geenty.
Her process typically begins on her living room floor, with paper scraps grouped by colour and shape. She often has multiple pieces in progress, using boards to plan her collages before assembly. Planning often takes the most time, with ideas sometimes taking intentional, or sometimes intuitive, inspiration from life. Once her pieces are planned out, she creates and assembles and likes to finish her works and move onto new projects.
She collects old magazines and other used materials for her collages. Many of her paper scraps are from her time studying abroad in Melbourne where she took a collage and printmaking class. Sustainability is at her core of her artistic practice, and throughout our visit, she points out how it informs her various projects. Most recently, she has been working on her degree’s dissertation which combines her art and passion for sustainability. She has jars of used nicotine pouches which she plans to turn into a piece which reflects the wasteful nature of nicotine consumption. The piece is also self-reflective, as the nicotine pouches are her own, and we discuss the conflict between the ease and enjoyment of nicotine pouches, and the health risks and environmental impact.
Once her pieces are finished, they move to the kitchen, where many works are on display. She also paints in her kitchen, making the most of the welcoming, warm space. During our visit, she has many of her old works, both in progress and complete.
This is Art Soc! will feature five of Liz’s works, and will be on display from 2 April to 8 April at Taste on North St. You can find out more about Liz and her work here.