Research – Kirsty Mitchell

Kirsty Mitchell’s work has inspired my work since college, combining aesthetically pleasing images with a personal reason for producing them.

The work started out as a distraction from her mother’s death. When describing the project on her website she states – ‘This espapism grew into the idea of creating a storybook without words, dedicated to her, that would echo the fragments of the fairytales she had read constantly to me as a child’. Her drive to produce work on a personal level has inspired my own creative journey. My work is strongly based around my own personal experience with anxiety, yet I also want to produce images that are visually appealing.

Kirsty Mitchell’s work is full of colour, using the colour of the lavender fields as a running theme throughout her images for example. I have started thinking about colour more within my work, considering how certain colours portray a particular emotion. Within my upcoming work I want to combine the colour of the landscape, with make up, clothes and accessories to create an image that is visually pleasing to its viewer.

Mitchell’s’ background in fashion design allows her to create elaborate costumes and accessories, which is something I need to consider when planning shoots. On both a tight budget and small time frame I need to ensure that the ideas I plan are achievable.