Blue Butterfly Flooring

The Magical World of Emily Campbell

Posted on July 11th, 2011 Victoria No comments

As a Trend Forecaster for the Interiors industry I’m privileged to review the work of International Creatives from diverse disciplines. I’m often excited, intrigued and delighted by their work but I don’t remember ever feeling Uplifted … until recently when I discovered the work of Emily Campbell. Let me show you what I mean:

These lighboxes installed in West Heath Primary Care Centre in Birmingham depict magical vistas of the local area. They are typical of Emily’s ability to introduce a sense of calm, wellbeing and positivity into buildings which are often places of personal stress.

Stoke-on-Trent based Artist Emily Campbell creates surreal and often juxtaposed scenes depicting rainbow suspended bridges over powder paint blue skies, safari animals, dragon flies, flamingos, rabbits nibbling and seeming so real you want to stroke them…alongside Urbanscapes and scenes of local Communities. It’s a mix that is ultimately poetic, perhaps romanticised, dare I say Spiritual and most definitely beneficial to those who come into the spaces the works reside in. The work communicates “everything is going to be alright”…and I like that! As Shelley often says in her seminars “Our world sometimes seems overwhelmed by ugliness as we are bombarded on a daily basis by negative messages from the Media. During these particularly complex and trying times we seek to surround ourselves with beauty.” Emily’s work allows the ordinary and the difficult to be transformed into the extraordinary and the tranquil. Emily’s pieces are ofcommunities and for communities. It is accessible artwork that creates a sense of escapism and fantasy and, as you’ll see, even encourages people to play.

Today Emily discusses her favourite works with me, explains her creative techniques and the thinking behind her 2009 venture into the world of Flooring via her company Blue Butterfly Flooring.

Lightboxes for West Heath Primary Care Centre

VR: I find your work emotionally uplifting and visually striking. What are your personal aspirations for your works when they are placed particularly in schools and healthcare environments?

EC: Many thanks, those are very nice comments! Coming from a Fine Art background I have always been interested in the way we perceive things, the way we look at things. My work is full of details, which I hope means that every time you look you see something new. Not only this but all the images are actually made from very ordinary photographs of the every day. I like to create a bit of magic in the ordinary and the familiar, in the hope that the viewer can take a sense of the extraordinary back into the real world. For example if you look very closely into the heart of a raindrop and let your imagination flow, what might be hiding? In Healthcare settings this is particularly important, as they are places where most of the time we would rather not be. I hope that the works serve to distract and calm patients, and also allow them to be part of a more magical and uplifting environment.

‘A World of Difference’ – A series of backlit duratans for Harplands Acute Psychiatric Hospital

EC: In Schools I would like to think the pieces develop and compliment children’s inherent imagination. I like to hope that they encourage creativity and conversations and allow children to recognize that the world can be quite an extraordinary place!

‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’ – A bespoke vinyl floor for the entrance of Summerbank Primary School

VR: Can you explain your creative process to our readers please Emily…Do you take all the photographs yourself? Do you start with a hand drawn layout sketch? Is it a very fluid/flexible creative process? What software do you use? What is your involvement with the final manufacturing process…particularly for the flooring?

EC: Ohh the creative process – this is the bit I lovemost about what I do! I always start with the space – a bit like a painter uses a palette of colours to create a painting, my palette is made from the people, place and function of a space. Art can do many things and I think it is fundamental to think about want the Art needs to do, i.e. distract, calm, help with way finding, change the atmosphere etc. Once all these things have been researched I tend to take lots and lots of pictures and Yes I take all the pictures myself (I now have a library of thousands on my computer!) – Then I sit at my computer with some very loud music, sometimes a glass of wine (not really relevant, but for those interested, Kate Bush and a white Rioja) and I completely lose myself. I can sit for hours making the images, totally lost in the world I am creating.

Canvas Design

EC continues: The images are composed using Photoshop, cutting, pasting, cloning etc – nothing very complicated. Once I am happy with the images, they always go back to the client for approval, as at this point it is easy for changes to be made.

I have a variety of different contractors that I work with and have built up good relationships with them over the years, so I know the quality of the final artworks. There will always be some variation in colours when you go to print so I often send a hardcopy for printers to colour match the images. It is always a surprise though to see the final products, it is very different seeing an image on a 23 inch monitor and then seeing the work as a 10m x 10 m floor piece – I can get quite stressed before installation!

VR: You write in your Artists Statement about the importance ofconversations…how do your conversations with the people who will use the spaces your work appears in inform and inspire the final designs you create?

EC: I often work with a fantastic Story Teller, Maria Whatton, she has an amazing ability to facilitate some beautifully creative texts from both adults and children in the community. Maria encourages the use of similes and a very visual language – I then visually interpret the community’s observations to make the work. For example one man talked about seeing huge barrage balloons during the war and described them as being like enormous grey elephants in the sky – this of course I loved. I like the idea of the community’s words creating new histories and stories, the light boxes I make from these become almost like contemporary stained glass windows.

‘Visions of Home’ – Summerfield Primary Care Centre

A massive vinyl banner (seen insitu below), depicting images of the local area, combined with magical elements. Images inspired by conversations with community.

EM continues: For ‘Love Ties’ (pictured below) I worked with members of the community to talk about love, it was actually quite emotional – it is not something people talk about very publicly in our society. Participants then wrote love letters, texts from which were made from brushed and polished stainless steel and wrapped for example around the islands in the boating lake and on the upraises of the steps. It means that the work stems directly from the community that will be living with it.

‘Love Ties’ – A permanent Public Art Installation in Hanley Park, Stoke

VR: Your work is wonderfully magical with a strong dreamscape aesthetic…a mix of reality and fantasy that is beautifully surreal. Who are you inspired by from the creative fields?

Canvas Design

EC: I always find this a hard question as so many things in the world influence me constantly. However, in order to answer your question, although visually nothing like my images, I really enjoy the work of Richard Wilson (pictured left) – his work turns the world as we know it on its head. I remember seeing his oil Piece 20:50 (pictured below) at the Saatchi Gallery years ago and could not believe the sense of vertigo I had when I was immersed in it. An absolutely stunning, but beautifully simple installation – made from something as basic as oil.

20:50 by Richard Wilson – Used sump oil & steel

VR: Your flooring work seems to have a strong impact on people…do you observe that it is the catalyst for ‘play’ and encourages a sense of wonder even in adults?

EC: I certainly hope so – When I started printing the flooring, I had a sample in my living room, my daughter who was five at the time spent hours playing on it, her play was interrupted by an urgent visit to the toilet, when she said to her friend “I just need to leave my world for a minute to go to the loo” This made me smile a lot.

EC continues: I think even when you are 40, it is about the transformation of ones experience of a space, jumping over the waves and spotting the fish is a far more interesting way to get to the library! I think the flooring brings out the child within us all, making spaces more magical places to be.

Detail of flooring

VR: I understand you plan to expand the product range available from Blue Butterfly. What product areas would you like to explore?

EC: Lots! It is one of the issues we have, you can print onto virtually anything these days and although this gives us massive potential for interior design products, it is hard to know what to concentrate on.

One area we are really excited about is cube seating. These would use the designs for the canvas’s, which were actually designed for the cubes. The image would be wrapped around the sides of the cube with a sky image on the top. When the cubes were not being used for seating they can be stacked in the corner and become kind of 3D pictures (This idea from my fantastic new Sales Director, Emma).

We are also thinking about more wall based products, I have just had some images printed onto Perspex for Manchester Children’s Hospital. The Perspex has such a contemporary and sparkly quality which really suits some of my designs. Any other suggestions for applications from any of your readers are more than welcome?

VR: Where can our readers see your work exhibited this year?

EC: We are hoping to be at 100% Design in September, but are always happy to meet people to show our products. It is hard to get a sense of the vibrancy and print quality unless you see them for real.

VR: Finally…what commissions are you currently working on Emily and what other areas of development do you have in the pipeline?

EC: I am currently working on a massive image 16 meters long, for the façade of a new build Health centre in Blackburn ‘Beautiful Blackburn Moments’ – I am quite excited about this because I am using a new process, ceramic print onto glass. This means the image is glazed onto the glass, which makes it permanent and durable. I think though this process has massive applications for interior design, as the artwork can become part of the fabric of the space.

An area we really want to expand on with Blue Butterfly Flooring is bespoke work, I love working with interior designers and combining skills to create truly special places for people. We are currently in discussions with the interior designers for a top London Department Store, so exciting times ahead!

Many, many thanks to Emily for sharing her fantastic work with us today. I have been involved with the flooring industry in several guises since I first founded Scarlet Opus…writing for flooring magazines, presenting trend seminars at flooring exhibitions, acting as a Colour Consultant, as a Design Director and an Ambassador. But in truth it is rare indeed to discover a Designer applying their creativity to this sector and producing something genuinely exciting. Yes we see this in the area of rugs but beyond that product it’s only very occasionally that I’ve seen flooring that has honestly WOWed me. Emily’s flooring makes me go “WOW” and it makes me stretch my wonder muscles. And I’m not alone in this reaction…Interior Designer Stephanie Prior at British department store Heals agrees:

“In terms of design, I think Emily has created a range that is unique and definitely filling in that missing piece in the design/retail industry. Although her designs work amazingly well in healthcare centres, schools etc, I really feel she can offer an amazing and unusual option for residential homes, flats etc. I can definitely see this working in children’s rooms and playrooms, conservatories and even living rooms. I just love the way that no matter what angle you look at it or stand, it feels as though you are within the scene. It really is pure genius!”

I think we’ll end today’s posting on that amazing endorsement!

To see more images of Emily’s work, information on her creative process and contact details for commissions please visit: www.emilycampbell.co.uk

For more information about Blue Butterfly Flooring visit: www.bluebutterflyflooring.com

Or check Emily out on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emily-Campbell-Blue-Butterfly-Flooring/105954092779559

‘Harplands Reflective Space’ – Harplands Hospital Stoke-on-Trent