Meet the artist behind the recent LeedsBID Summer Roadshow artwork – Cait McEniff
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about what you do as an illustrator?
I am an illustrator and textile artist from Warrington, but I’ve been based in Leeds for nearly 10 years now. I like to tell stories through pictures, my work is influenced by craft, play and noticing quirks in the everyday. My interests are in research, environment, and the relationship between shape, pattern and simplification. I am drawn to analogue approaches and the tangibility and imperfections which come from making work by hand. I work on a variety of different things whether that be commissions and projects for businesses or individuals, making my own work to sell or exhibit, or running workshops and community projects.
How did you get involved in creating the illustration for Leeds BID at Wellington Place?
My friend Harry got me involved! A few years ago I did a project about Kirkgate Market (one of my favourite bits of Leeds!) and in it I’d done some line drawings celebrating this special part of the city. He’d seen these and had had the idea of an illustrator creating a colouring in page for each of the 6 areas the LeedsBID Summer Roadshow was visiting. I’d never made colouring in pages before so it was a fun challenge. I’m excited to see how people respond to them and colour them in in different ways! It’s really cool to be able to collaborate with people in your city that you’ve never met before!
What inspired the design, and what story did you want the illustration to tell?
I wanted to tell lots of little stories within one larger environment. Drawing these characters was really fun, imagining what they would be like as real people and what they were up to and the stories they might tell. Across the 6 illustrations I’ve done for this project for the 6 locations I’ve included a variety of different people all coexisting in these spaces. Trying to seamlessly link the elements of the Summer Roadshow with the spaces as they naturally exist to make them fun and vibrant places to be.
Why do you think creativity and artwork are important in bringing places like Wellington Place to life?
I think it’s important to add a human element to corporate spaces. To liven them up with something that feels organic against the modern structures of glass and steel. I think environments like this can feel intimidating to people who don’t use them or exist within them, like they don’t belong there perhaps? I know I’ve felt like that before when I’ve ended up in corporate business-y districts of cities. So I think creativity is a great way to welcome people and make them feel as though this place is accessible and has an element of authentic humanity to it! Wellington Place is great at creating this community and making it feel like like a neighbourhood for everyone.
