PROFILE
Emily Bowers - an Artist in Residence Make this world a better place if you can.’ This may be a refrain from a Diana Ross single but for Emily Bowers it is her raison d’être. Concerned about the natural world for as long as she can remember, Emily was raised in the countryside in Weston near Spalding. She has fond memories of childhood summers cycling round country roads to visit horses in fields, finding frogs in the dyke with her Dad and taking a ride in her Grandad’s combine harvester. Having studied art in several forms, from photography to fine art and textiles, Emily has jobbed her way through various roles in both film making and photography locally. It was working with conservation and environmental photographer, Toby Smith, where
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the link between her love of the natural world and her skills as an artist and photographer came into sharp relief. Emily regards her surroundings with an eye, noticing natural compositions that will a drawing or painting where the light atmosphere and she captures movement and with playful mark making.
artist’s inspire creates energy
Her work is driven by emotive responses and a love of storytelling, whether a fictional exploration or reinterpreting a kernel of knowledge that has piqued her interest. Whilst Emily draws upon her keen observations, her imagination frees her to step out from the world and examine its progress, exploring
other perspectives, so that her work hooks us in with its narrative. Emily’s hands-on experience allowed her to bypass a degree, enrolling at the Anglia Ruskin School of Art in Cambridge to do an MA in Children’s Book illustration to further develop her storytelling skills, completing her course as the pandemic set in. During the enforced isolation of lockdown, the need for connection was identified by local arts organisation, Peterborough Presents, and was one of the services which came to the fore over the last few months. Emily was engaged to work with residents selected by agencies in the Peterborough area as being particularly vulnerable during the lockdown. As part of the ‘Mint’
