Rosa Merchant developed a love for print making across her BA and MA in illustration at Derby University. She was able to form a style that worked well with this media and became quickly drawn to using beast like figures within her work, as she finds that she is able to project and relate to them more than a human figure. They are easier to depict in more unusual ways than the figure.
Rosa is influenced by environments and the people that occupy them. Having grown up in a very industrial ex-dockyard town, this industrial, ‘forgotten about’ town and the people living in them have really had an impact on her life and artistic journey, from school all the way through to university. Her pieces are often an extension of herself, especially when she finds it hard to put into words how she is feeling at that moment.
The pieces exhibited were all created during the first lock down and convey the difficulties Rosa was going through at this time, including loneliness, isolation, and change.
