Rosie Roberts is a 23 year-old illustrator from London.  She studied BA (hons) in Illustration at Brighton University and graduated in June 2008. We decided to get hold of her when Alex from Thee Single Spy gave us a copy of his vinyl with her work on the fabric sleeve. We’ve since found that her work is fantastically powerful and concerned with a plethora of fascinating subject matter.

Art and Things: What inspired you to make this collection of images?

Rosie Roberts: They’re all inspired by stories and folktales. Canwyll Corfe  is from a series I made last year based on Welsh folklore; a couple are from a series I based on short story by Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat.  The final two, Galdranorn and Birdcages are from a series I’m currently working on, inspired loosely by the idea of witches, and by different folktales featuring witches.

Are there certain themes that you’re concerned with expressing in these works?

I don’t really try to express anything too literal; I really just like to experiment using different imagery, and seeing what kind of feeling or mood it can create.

What are your favourite materials to work with?

Paper, collage, ink and monoprints.  I always work by hand, usually creating a mess of papers, cuttings and books on my floor as I go! I use collage of imagery I find in antique books, newspapers and magazines, and combine it with ink drawing and mark-making.

Some of these works (especially canwll corfe, galdranorn) have a bizarre, unsettling otherworldliness to them. Was this kind of ethereal creepiness something you were aiming to achieve?

I don’t necessarily set out to create something specifically ‘creepy’ in my images- but I think that because often my pieces have been inspired by a story, myth or poem that has a dark or macabre tone then that quality simply translates into the visual work as well.

Would you say that these pieces confront the mind’s at times uneasy relationship with the avant garde?

Perhaps- though I think that most visual art that has a strange or enigmatic quality has the power to do this.  I like the idea of combining the old and new- old influences and found imagery with modern elements and modern interpretation, and sometimes the combination can create something quite obscure.

Are you interested in exploring that area of human reactions?

I do think the different reactions that different people have to visual art is very interesting. An image can evoke familiarity, fear, intrigue, indifference; it’s something very individual and unique to each viewer.

The last thing that really scared you out of your wits?

I can’t actually remember when I last was terrified by something! But I suppose I am quite fascinated by the idea of the supernatural, of mysteries, I think I always have been.  As a child I remember visiting a country house that was supposedly haunted, it had a definite feeling of mystery and a very distinctive smell, a damp smell.  Perhaps I just imagined that uneasy feeling because I’d been told it was haunted but I like to think it was down to something otherworldly and mysterious!

We like your work on the cover of Thee Single Spy record that Alex gave to us.

What do you like about doing album covers? Have you done any more?

Thank you!  The Thee Single Spy cover is the first record cover I’ve worked on, and I really enjoyed doing it; their music is completely unique, I think it has a really timeless quality, which I love.   Music has often been an influence on my work, and I love the idea of trying to translate that feeling a certain song can give you into something visual.

Who’s work really inspires you?

One of my illustration heroes is Aubrey Beardsley.  Also, Hannah Hoch for her amazing photo-montages.  I look at a lot of photographers- Walker Evans, Wolfgang Tillmans, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston among others.

Your favourite novelist?

That’s a tricky question to answer; I feel I have so much I want to read I can’t decide a favourite just yet!  At the moment I’m reading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, which I’m enjoying escaping in.

What’s on your top 5 most played on itunes? (if you don’t use itunes, what do you really like at the moment)

My favourite songs always change depending what I’m doing, but at the moment I’ve been listening to: Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Beirut, Bon Iver, The Velvet Underground.

What’re you doing next?

In the next few months I’m planning to make a series of screen prints of my work, as well as continuing with my own projects and creating some hand bound books.

There’s loads of really cool stuff on Rosie’s Website.

Interview: PB