Unskilled Worker

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2019

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 09 of The Great Women Artists Podcast, Katy Hessel interviews the brilliant London-based artist, Helen Downie, who goes under the guise of UNSKILLED WORKER! A self-taught artist who first started painting aged 48 a mere six years ago, Unskilled Worker rose to prominence after posting her work online (instagram.com/unskilledworker), amassing nearly 300,000 Instagram followers, which led to designing collections for Gucci, and exhibiting at museums all over the world. Known for her intensely vibrant and poetic dreamlike canvases full of her very personal portrayals of people – from those in her imagination, to those who feature in her past and present – Unskilled Worker draws the viewer into a highly atmospheric world of childlike innocence. In this episode we discuss the artist's lifelong fascination with people; what led her to pick up a paintbrush age 48; picking up her subjects where she left off aged 14; painting Oscar Wilde to Radclyffe Hall; and how she learnt to live life as a painter – as well as dealing with such a dominant internet presence. It was an honour to interview the great painter, who also speaks very movingly about dealing with grief through painting – and how occasionally, those from her past who may have got lost along the way, appear on the page in front of her. WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE Where's Ted https://www.instagram.com/p/BujBg5eDOqD/ Faraway Boy https://www.instagram.com/p/BzLuy_sBUrv/ The Arrival https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvb9r3ujcQP/ Self Portrait https://www.instagram.com/p/BdXY9z2DgR3/ An English Idyll 2 https://www.instagram.com/p/BaMkZjpD0V5/ Radclyffe Hall and Una – The Tiger That Lost His Stripes https://www.instagram.com/p/BXNwcaPD9ST/ Oscar and Boesie https://www.instagram.com/p/BWprTZxDlv_/ Thank you for listening!! This episode is sponsored by the National Art Pass/ @artfund: https://bit.ly/32HJVDk To receive a free tote bag with your National Art Pass, enter the code GREAT at checkout! Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by @_ellieclifford Artwork by @thisisaliceskinner Music by Ben Wetherfield https://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	As you can probably tell, visiting galleries and museums is one of my absolute favourite activities,
0:06.0	and our new sponsor, The National Art Pass, makes that a whole lot easier, smoother and cheaper for us art lovers and gallery goers.
0:14.0	Not only does the National Art Pass grant you free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, such as Kensington Palace,
0:23.4	Cardiff Castle and the Hornemann Museum. It also gives 50% off major exhibitions at places such as
0:29.7	the British Museum, Tate, VNA, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and so many more.
0:35.8	And we all know that they have some pretty good upcoming and
0:38.6	current exhibitions, from Dora Marr at the Tate Modern to Elizabeth Payton at the National Portrait
0:43.3	Gallery. Membership is just 70 pounds for an entire year and for those under 30, it's a mere
0:48.6	45 pounds. And for lucky great women artists listeners, you can also receive an exclusive tote bag designed
0:54.8	by Malika Fave when you buy a National Art Pass by entering the code, great, at checkout.
1:00.4	Thanks to our sponsor, the National Art Pass for making this podcast possible.
1:07.9	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Women Artists podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
1:14.7	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October
1:19.1	2015, which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old
1:25.2	masters. Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram,
1:29.2	this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories.
1:34.9	And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career or artists, writers, curators,
1:40.4	or general art lovers on the women artist who means most of them.
1:49.0	What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities so you, the listener, can gain a look into the greatest female artists working now or from art history.
2:09.2	I'm very excited to say that my guest today is the brilliant artist Helen Downey, who goes under the name of Unskilled Worker.
2:15.7	A self-taught painter, Unskilled Worker is known for her intensely vibrant and poetic dreamlike canvases,
2:18.5	full of her very personal portrayals of people,
	...

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