Megan Bellatrix Archibald is a relief printmaker, primarily working in linocut and woodcut printmaking. She goes back and forth between hand printing her work, and using the facilities at Glasgow Print Studio and Peacock Visual Arts. Megan studied Contemporary Art Practice at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, before going on to postgraduate study at Edinburgh College of Art. However, somewhat ironically, Megan never did any printmaking as a student; “I dodged all of the printmaking workshops – a decision I now enormously regret – and focused on photography and darkroom process for almost all of my time at art school.” It was during the last two years that Megan’s love of print has developed. After a while of trying to figure it out on her own in the studio, she took the plunge and booked an induction at Peacock.
Megan goes back and forth between media, technology, and processes as she creates. She is consistently making, and often her way of “figuring out what to do” is to keep making things, until she figures it out. “It’s almost a ‘if you throw enough spaghetti at a wall, eventually something sticks!’ approach to making art,” describes the printmaker. After a few years of ardently shunning iPads and Procreate as a hardened Luddite, Megan treated herself to one around three years ago, and it has been a game changer for her artistic practice. Her printmaking process can begin with drawing, then often loading that original paper drawing into Procreate to further tinker with it, and then printing this drawing as a master, from which she can carbon copy her work onto the block. Megan makes a lot of collages too, and approximately half of her prints originate as collages made from old copies of National Geographic or beaten up reference books rescued from charity shops, before being loaded into the iPad, edited, played around with, and printed. Sometimes, she uses laser cutters for woodblock printmaking, and then there’s even more back and forth – into the laser cutter, then hand carved for a bit, then back into the laser cutter. She says; “It can be a convoluted process, but to me, the process is just as fascinating as the final print”.
Inspiration for her works comes from a variety of places. For the last couple of years, she has been working on a research project on the Scottish Reformation, the Scottish witchcraft trials, and the myths and legends that surround it. “I can talk your ear off about John Knox,” jokes Megan. Urban legends, as well as traditional folk tales, the wonderful history and wildlife of the North East of Scotland, and fairy tales all feed into her prints. Currently, Megan is working towards an upcoming solo show in Edinburgh in October titled Witchfinder, which is broadly inspired by all of these themes. She states; “I guess, ultimately, my work is underpinned by my
fascination with things that are a bit weird and macabre, the odder and more out there the better.”
Looking forward, Megan hopes to collaborate with more artists, and expand her knowledge of printmaking. “It is my goal to have at least tried out copper plate etching by next Summer,” explains the artist. Because she was primarily self-taught in the early days, Megan is still expanding her skill-set in regards to carving techniques, and is looking forward to improving. Presently, she is mostly focusing her energy on sorting out her show in October, but is also beginning to collect local maps of Scotland, with the idea to create place-specific pieces printed onto the maps.
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