“Wealth comes in many forms.” Alison Stephenson can often be found training students at UWE on how to make things with textiles, but this is a small fraction of her talents as a painter, a maker and one who lives life creatively…
by Jamillah Knowles
Painter, prototype maker, artist, teacher, traveler and shoemaker, Alison Stephenson has covered a lot of ground in her creative career. For those wanting to follow the trails she blazes, the core advice is to be process driven, don’t fuss about how long things take and be patient.
As a child, she was already creative, learning to sew from her mother and grandmothers by six and winning awards for her work making a hand stitched Victorian rag doll at ten. Through her teens it was sewing, drawing and the world of creative business took hold.
“When I was about 15, I would go and buy some fabric, then try things on in Miss Selfridge and take a newspaper under my arm so I could make a pattern on the changing room floor, and then go home and create it. That was the early 80s – I made clothes for my friends including a pink knitted catsuit that looked amazing. By the time I was about 17 I had a little business. My nickname is Bod like BOD and Friends and I had my own label called ‘Handmade by Bod’. I made clothes for my friend’s mum’s dress shop and I also did oil paintings for her walls, so I painted Vogue-style paintings for her. I was entrepreneurial.”
In formal education, it’s probably not a surprise that Alison was thriving. She did well at sixth form doing A-Levels under a teacher who she remembers fondly. “I had the most fantastic art teacher, Adrian Davis. He was totally inspiring and a bit like Billy Connolly but Welsh. He’d bound into class and dance on the art room tables, we’d never come across a teacher like him. He was a practising artist and he took us to London shows and encouraged me to go to art school. I was quite academic but I realised that what I liked doing best was drawing, painting and making things.”
No elves, but a shoemaker
Following sixth form, Alison studied Art History at Foundation level and worked part-time.
“I got a job making commemorative plates with photographs on them – a slightly naff product but very skilled techniques. I used my photography skills, learned glazing and because I was good at calligraphy, I did all the lettering too. It was a side business for a big health food shop that had a cafe and gift store inside. When they realised I was arty, they gave me window dressing to do and all the displays to do. I ended up painting murals for the whole shop. They just said, what do you want to do? What can you do? And it was amazing and they trusted me. It was such a great job and I learned that companies will pay you for doing what you love.”
When she finally came to do a degree it was in Bristol, at the University of the West of England in the college where she is working now as a technical instructor in the fashion and textiles department. “I did graphic design because I wanted to earn a living from my creative skills. The first year was very broad and then in the second and third years I specialised in illustration.’’ While gaining her degree at UWE she was taught by artist George Tute who inspired her in lino cuts and print. She recently saw his work in the RWA Open exhibition.
“I really enjoyed doing illustration, it was incredibly open. I was going from department to department learning new techniques, particularly using print, textiles and ceramics in my work. At the time this approach was somewhat frowned upon, but I did it anyway. Nowadays interdisciplinary work is encouraged, and I very much approve of this.”
After graduating, Alison got an illustration commission, which earned her £60 and led her into quite a different direction. “I bought myself a pair of handmade boots from a shop at the Christmas Steps in Bristol with that commission fee. The guy in charge asked if I would watch the shop because his colleague had broken his arm the day before and he was panicking. I asked him if he needed further help and he said, ‘can you come in at 10 tomorrow?’ and with that, I became a shoemaker.”
A break and another change of scene followed Alison’s time with the shoemaker. She travelled the world for 14 months and on her return, threw herself into the world of costume making. Over the past twenty years she has created everything from space suit costumes for children to a giant bra. She lived on a narrowboat – which altered her nickname to BoatBod among friends – and designed and created costumes that kids have worn in science centres all over the country.
Alongside freelance work, Alison has taught art in high security prisons, with homeless charities, made product prototypes for countless businesses and of course supported hundreds of students at the University.
In a reassuring circle, painting and drawing have returned to Alison’s repertoire and she shows her work in exhibitions and on the Arts Trails of Bristol. “I started oil painting again about ten years ago, encouraged by my neighbour, a fantastic landscape painter whose classes have pulled me back in.”
A varied creative career is something to be valued. Overall, she has spent decades honing her craft and is now able to offer those skills and creative problem solving talent to new generations of students.
“I have worked my entire life in creative ways and I’m extremely proud of that. I’ve learned and enjoyed virtually every day, with only a handful of times where I haven’t felt satisfied and that makes me pretty damn lucky. I haven’t made a fortune, but I realised early that wealth comes in many forms.”
Jamillah Knowles is a writer, artist, AI specialist and RWA Friend. You can read a Floating Circle Meet the Artist Q&A with her here.
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