Laura New
Laura New is an artist and illustrator from London but now living and working on the edge of a forest in Somerset. Her work is typically ink on paper bringing to life fairy-tale characters that never were. Monsters and tiny psychopaths, gremlins and ghosts.
"Some of my fairy-tale monsters and hybrids are influenced by repetitive childhood watching of The Labyrinth, The Neverending Story and The Dark Crystal, the fairy tales of my generation and the colossal cult stature of those films based in puppetry and early special effects. All of those movies have moments of terrifying dark narrative that would make a child’s heart squish with hurt and loss. Atreyu losing Artax in the swamp, Podlings having their essence sucked dry from them to become zombie slaves, ET’s near death and Toby being stolen as a baby from his crib by the Goblin King.
Then of course there is the lifelong trauma caused by Martin Rosen’s 1978 animation of Watership Down which left most of us with a slightly odd terror regarding the welfare of rabbits and a deep early understanding of societal groupings, prejudice and genocide (Christ that’s some early learning). Look out for the rabbit ears."
