Focus: Almudena Rocca and Helen Grierson

Who are you and where are you from?
AR My name is Almudena. I was born in Spain but currently live in Northumberland. My father’s parents fled the Spanish Civil War and eventually settled in London, which contributes to my Spanish heritage. My mother grew up primarily in Ashington; her mother worked as a typist, and her father sadly passed away when she was young, which is part of my British heritage. 

HG My name is Helen Grierson. I am from the North East. I grew up in Ashington and in my teens I couldn’t wait to leave the place. Having received limited careers advice as a woman, none to do with the arts or the creative industries, I went off to train as a teacher and spent 20 years teaching in London trying to find as many opportunities for my creative abilities and cravings as possible. After meeting my partner and having children I fell back in love with the North East, even Ashington, moved back and decided to try and build a business using my creative talents and new skills I had acquired using glass as my medium.

What do you do?
AR I am a multidisciplinary artist, primarily working with clay and glass, and I am also a tattooist. I am passionate about advocating for the importance of creativity in improving mental health and well-being. Recently, I published a book titled *The Intuitive Drawing Journal*, which encapsulates this passion. I hope to one day complete a degree in art therapy or counselling. 

HG Over the last 20 years I have built up a glass business. I have had several commercial studios which has enabled me to design and make things like large glass splashbacks for kitchens and bathrooms, glass awards, stained glass panels for doors and windows, private commissions and small sculptures. Along side this, the teaching part of me has always remained strong so I have run workshops partly to pass on my love and joy of working with glass but also because stained glass, since 2023 is now on the endangered crafts list and |I want to encourage other people to take up the craft.

How long have you been doing it?
AR I have been a full-time creative since around 2020, although I have been making art, drawing, and dancing for most of my life.

What inspires you?
AR Most recently, I have found inspiration in nature, my relationships with the women in my life, and female archetypes, folklore, and storytelling. 

HG Living in Northumberland has proven a great inspiration for my work over the last 20 years. But more recently, having just completed a 10-month course with international artist and mentor Gillian Lee Smith all about “finding your voice within your work” I am now creating work at a much deeper, personal level than I have ever done before and my work has changed beyond all recognition and has become more political and more about people.

Tell us about your work.
AR My art uniquely intertwines elements of folklore, storytelling, and the multifaceted feminine experience, creating rich narratives that reflect both deeply personal and collective stories. I draw inspiration from traditional tales, nature, and our relationships, reinterpreting them to highlight the profound strength found within various feminine archetypes. Each piece serves as a powerful exploration of significant themes such as identity, heritage, empowerment, and connections, inviting viewers to engage with the intricate stories that shape our understanding of womanhood. I primarily work with clay, creating domestic pieces and hand-sculpted forms. Clay is a versatile material, and I find its therapeutic nature connects me not only to the craft but also serves as a vessel for exploring my thoughts and feelings through my art. Tattooing allows me to connect with others on an intimate and collaborative level. I have previously created tattoos based on people’s personal stories, traumas, and experiences, providing a healing and transformative experience for those being tattooed. “Wearing” our wounds can be a very powerful and healing experience. 

HG The work that has emerged since doing the course mentioned above has come about after watching the very slow decline of my mother who lived with dementia for a number of years. Her decline, how we care for and manage the process of ageing and that decline and how as a western society we view it along with the fact we view it differently depending on  gender led me to feel very fearful and negative about my own ageing.

I wanted to change how I felt. I wanted to feel more positive. How could I do this? What did I need to look for? How could I use my glass work to change how I felt?

I started researching, and what I found really informed my work. I found people like Chip Conely who runs a modern elder academy who talks about making ageing aspirational. I found authors like Sharon Blackie and Clarissa Pinkola Estes who reimagine the elder women and give us role models to aspire to in mythology and folklore.  I found women artists like Tracy Emin, Jelena Bulajic, and Joan Semmel who paint older women so beautifully with such strength and resilience that encouraged me to see myself and my body much more positively. All this, plus my own experience has led me to create a body of work that encourages us, I hope, to be kinder to ourselves as we age and start to see ageing as something very positive. Chip Conely says something about, as a society we don’t focus on growing, we seem to be focused on ageing and we should be looking at it in terms of moving away from the playing filed of the body to the playing field of the soul. I guess that is what my new body of work is focused on. 

Now that I have made this work I want to show it and along with my daughter we decided to show our work together. Almudena’s work focuses more on the intergenerational relationships of women and both themes fit together really well.

What do you have coming up in the future? 
AR In addition to our wonderful exhibition *Pieces of Woman*, I hope to attend several art fairs, including Potfest in the Pens, Forage, and the Alnmouth Arts Festival. I am also looking to tour a few events with my book. Both Helen and I would like to bring our exhibition to other venues.

HG In the immediate future both myself and my daughter have this joint exhibition at the RePUBlic Gallery in Blyth called Pieces of Woman. Then after that I am not quite sure. I would like to take the exhibition on to other places across the country to exhibit and get peoples reactions to it. 

This year I am also working with Newcastle University on a series of glass workshops.