Student stories: Ange Mullins

I’m Ange, a Creative Arts student, and I’m within touching distance of the finishing  line after many years of study with OCA. I began in about 2008, although I can’t  now recall exactly when I signed up with what was then a very different OCA. I  joined purely as a means to learn more about ‘art’, a promise validated with a  certificate of completion at the end, along with a vague suggestion to have work  assessed; little did I realise that my journey would culminate with a BA (Hons) Creative Arts Degree.  

In the last 5 years especially, I’ve spent much of my energy investigating how  humanity impacts our less-than-human world, and Level 3 of the Creative Arts has  exponentially increased my knowledge of such environmental issues and ways to  think about, and explore them. What amazes me is that I can now vocalise my  thoughts and feelings about the things that matter so much to me through my  creativity, with a full understanding of ‘what, why, and why again’, as my tutors have  drummed into me! 

In the beginning I explored varying themes and ways of making, including painting,  drawing, installation and alternative photography, but it is printmaking that stole  my heart and continues to fascinate me. My brilliant and extremely patient tutors  were a rock throughout, I definitely couldn’t have achieved so much without their  timely teachings. I should also mention the fantastic support from other OCA  students who are always willing to listen and help, and not forgetting my long  suffering partner who has learnt when to give me a hug with a few comforting  words, or equally to leave me alone as I battled through particularly difficult  assignments!  

The pandemic arrived, lockdown came and thankfully went, and for me it left in its  wake a mass of insecurities and a re-evaluation of an assumed way of life. The  pandemic changed things for me as it did for many, and I now question fundamental expectations and societal assumptions, things I took for granted pre covid, using my creativity as a way to help me focus on how I interact and connect and reconnect with the natural world around me. My creative practice not only  satisfies the urge to create, but for me it is a way of grounding or re-grounding  myself during these continuingly troubled times. 

I’ve spent these last two years embracing natural materials as a way to touch, smell  and re-familiarise myself with nature on a different level. Materials, their  importance and pivotal role they play in our lives is key to the work I make. I begin  by foraging for organic matter such as conkers, oak galls, ivy, nettles, walnuts and  pine cones, and go on to make inks from them, which I then use in my printmaking.  Not just inks, but also charcoal and earth. The materials speak in the art as much  as my imagination. I find great solace and pleasure handling and working with  these things, and the foraging and ink making are as important to me as the work  I make using them. 

I submit my final portfolio this September having curated a solo show with forty  pieces of my work, situated in the visitor centre of Stanwick Lakes Nature Reserve near Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. An exhibition is something I believed  

would never come to fruition but I have achieved my goal of exhibiting my work to  the public. And the response has been humbling, with many of those who saw and commented on my work sharing my passion for connecting and reconnecting with  the natural world.  

If you are in the area please drop in to see my work. Running until 27 August in this  perfect nature-centred venue, I would love to hear your thoughts on my work.  

My work can also be seen on my website https://www.angemullins.co.uk/ or  Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/angemullins/. Thank you.