faye moorhouse

After a mini-hiatus from our weekly artist interviews, we are finally back with a few new interviews with some very talented ladies. Our first interview is with illustrator Faye Moorhouse based out of southern England. Although kind of embarrassing to admit, I found her work through one of my late-night "cat zine" searches on Etsy (which as a side note, there really aren't many of...) and came across her epic artist's book, The Cat Ladies of Czechoslovakia. Her Etsy shop is bursting with original paintings, zines, prints, housewares - all of it a little creepy but as I've commented on a few of our previous interviews, my favorite art always is. Faye answered a few questions for us about the inspiration behind her different series of work & her self-publishing process.  


You can find more of Faye's work on her website and purchase her zines, prints & original paintings through her online shop. 

Where do you draw your inspiration? 

My main form of inspiration is stories. I’m particularly drawn to tales of strange things, conspiracies, mysteries, murders etc. I’m a natural born pessimist and I love all things
gross and shocking, I like to think this oddness shows itself in my work. 

Are there any artists, illustrators, or films in particular that have influenced your work?

Taxidermia, A Zed and Two Noughts, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Lars and The Real Girl, Blue Valentine. These are all really influential films for me, I’m not a great film watcher, I get very distracted and lose concentration quite quickly, however these films really engrossed me. I tend to be more of a documentary and reality-tv kind of person, and I think this tendency towards all things trashy and shocking has a definite influence on my work.

Are there any specific themes in your illustrations and projects you find yourself continually returning to? 

At the moment I am really trying to build up my online etsy shop, this means that I spend  less time than I should on creating new work. I am really enjoying painting naked  swimmers and people having sex, I also keep returning to my cat ladies; I think they have  further to be taken; I would love to animate the cat ladies!

And do you have a favorite project that you've completed?

Three Very Gruesome Love Stories was a really fun project for me, it was my minor  project at Uni, and our first self-initiated one, so I took the opportunity to do something I could really stick with and find personally intriguing. It was fun to work on 3 short stories as it allowed freedom to flip between them, meaning it always felt very fresh. 

Do you find yourself tending to complete your work in series? Or, can you elaborate on your creative process in terms of a piece from start to finish? Is there always a narrative  in mind?

When I begin a new project I start with a general theme or more often than not, a specific story, either one I’ve found or one I’ve written myself. Then I start putting my ideas straight into little mock-up books, (made by stapling 4 bits of a4 folded paper together) I’ve tried working straight onto paper but I find it restricting, I love being able to work out the pace and flow of a book. From there I just keep re-making these mock-up books until I have one which works well, then I will create the final images, scan, edit, put into book format, print and bind. Some of my books/zines also require hand-colouring, this is quite a lengthy process! 

After I’ve created a final book / books for the project, or in fact whilst I am making books, I will start to think about how I can translate the narrative into single images.

If you could collaborate with any artist or individual on a project, who would it be and what would you produce?

I have no one in mind in particular, but I would love to do larger wall mural pieces or set  design for shops/ magazines. Actually one just came to mind! I would love to work with a  publisher, I’ve got my eye on Nobrow at the mo, they publish gorgeous screen-printed  short runs of artists/ illustrators books. Although I love self-publishing it does get  frustrating at times when I don’t have the equipment to do larger runs and with better  quality colour output, so I do secretly fantasize about getting my book spotted by a  publisher.

Thanks, Faye!