People of Print’s Gradspotters programme spotlights emerging graduate talent working in print and image-making. Our latest prospect is Bella Venable, MA Printmaking student at UWE Bristol, whose practice uses fabric and printmaking as a ritual for grief.
Bella Venable grew up in California, studied illustration at Camberwell College of the Arts, and is now completing an MA in Printmaking at the University of the West of England in Bristol. The work she is making there is rooted in one of the most universal and least publicly spoken of human experiences: grief.
Her current project, A Field of Beauty, begins with her grandmother, Carolyn Kenny. Growing up, Bella’s creativity was nurtured by her grandmother’s encouragement, but it wasn’t until her death that she learned the depth from which that nurturing came. Carolyn had spent years developing a music therapy practice called The Field of Play, drawing on her Indigenous heritage, both Choctaw and Haida… and her talents as a musician to explore the relationship between art, sound and healing. The name of Bella’s project is a direct response to that inheritance: her own field of play, found through printmaking.
The work uses fabric alongside traditional printmaking methods, creating pieces that live in a liminal space born from loss. Surrealism and the interactions between human and non-human run through the compositions, placing the experience of grief somewhere between the physical and the imagined, the personal and the universal. “My depth of emotions reflects within myself as a field of beauty,” she says. “It reflects the love I have for my grandmother and the love she had for me, placing beauty at the forefront of my work.”
What is particularly striking about Bella’s practice is its intentional orientation toward community. She does not want to make work about grief in isolation. She wants to talk about it publicly, to create a safe space for others who carry loss and to develop workshops where people can share and make together. The therapeutic dimension of Carolyn’s legacy is being carried forward through Bella’s hands.
Website: bellavenable.cargo.site Instagram: @bella.marie.prints
A Field of Beauty is exactly the kind of practice Gradspotters exists to support: deeply personal, conceptually grounded, socially purposeful and still developing. Bella has a clear sense of what she wants her work to do in the world and the skills to make it happen. What she needs now is support in building her practice beyond the studio: funding, professional development, community connections and the infrastructure that turns a brilliant graduate into a sustainable artist.
Applications are open
Gradspotters is People of Print’s programme for emerging graduates working in print, image-making and visual practice. We are looking for the next generation of visual communicators, printmakers, illustrators, designers and artists who are ready to take their practice beyond graduation and into the world.
Entry costs £20. Every applicant receives visibility on the People of Print platform. Selected prospects receive a full feature, mentorship and practical support with building their practice and career. If you are a recent graduate, or know one, this is the programme worth applying to.
Apply at peopleofprint.com/gradspotters
