ARTIST SPOTLIGHT #1: Lily Kroese

Here at NOWT, we like to sweat the small stuff - luckily, so does our first-ever featured artist, LILY KROESE.

Hailing from Newcastle, Lily has dabbled in plenty of mediums, from illustration and animation to comics and zines. Since moving to Manchester, though, the ambitious young artist has added yet another string (or should we say stringS?) to her bow, embarking on a journey into the world of puppetry with her latest project SMALL HANDS THEATRE.

"The shows I make are quite quiet, intimate things." She explains. "What I love most about puppetry is that there is no way to engage with it in any way other than naivety - you just have to suspend your disbelief or you won't get anything from it. So really, you have to watch it as a child!"

But that doesn't mean her puppets are just for kids - more often than not, there can be a political side to her work, too.

"There's a huge history of political puppetry and street performance - I think that's what's exciting about it. Once that kind of learned cynicism with which we're taught to view art is lost, you can engage people really deeply and give quite strong, radical messages."

Want to see more of wor Lily? Check out her work here, or follow her project on instagram: @smallhandstheatre

#art #spotlightart