Moira Vincentelli interviewing Katie Bunnell
M.V. Can you tell me a bit about how you first got interested in art
K.B. I suppose it was something I was really good at when I was younger,
I always did lots of drawing at home, lots of painting.
M.V. When were you born?
K.B. 1967.
M.V. Where were you brought up?
K.B.I was born in Scotland, but my father soon moved away from Scotland.
He had an idea that he wanted to gradually move south and get as far south
as possible. We lived in the Midlands and then we went to Devon and that’s
where they live now. That’s where I went to school, in Totnes, in Devon,
which is meant to be one of the most alternative places to live in Britain;
although my parents are incredibly conservative and normal.
M.V. What did your father do?
K.B. He worked for ICI from when he was sixteen, worked in a lab and then
he did car finishes. He used to go around and advise people on how to
re-spray their car and their lorries and stuff.He had quite a lot of technical
knowledge in painting, paints and stuff like that. Also, as a boy he did
photography, he always had his own darkroom. That’s one of the things
that we had as kids. We had our own darkroom and used to mess around in
that, and he was quite active in helping us set that up, and I was always
encouraged. I think it’s almost like a girl thing. It’s okay for the girl,
the daughter to do art because she will get married to someone who’ll
look after her in the way that she’s become accustomed. I think that that
was my dad’s ultimate image of that.
M.V. What role model did you have in your mother? What was she doing?
K.B. She’s a nurse. She’s a very strong-minded woman, but my dad, I always
felt that she was a bit oppressed by my dad. He was very male. He’d never
done any hoovering or dusting. I always felt she was a bit of a slave
to it all really.She was very creative. She made me all my clothes. She
made us toys. She made us fantastic dressing-up things. She was always
making stuff and still does.
M.V. So you came from a family where doing things and making things
was very much part of the situation?
K.B. Yes, she was very keen on gardening and still is as well, so it was
all that creating the garden and making the house nice.It was important,
but in a very sub-conscious way. It was not something that we theorised
or talked about. It was just what we did. My brother’s a musician as well.
He learnt the guitar quite young and he pursued that and was always in
a band. Was always having his mates around for sessions much to my parents
horror, wailing electric guitars. All he ever wanted was wa-wa boxes and
amplifiers and stuff. Of course I was nice and quiet and learnt to play
the piano.
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