An Introduction...

Hello and welcome to the official Cloud blog. Here is where you will get any detailed updates about my art, writing or progress in my profession. All posts will be sent through a newsletter so make sure you stay updated and sign up to my mailing list.

So, why are you called Cloud on all of your art?

This is definitely the question that I used to get asked the most. My name is Ivy. I go by this in most settings, professional and familial. However, Cloud is something that I hold as an important pseudonym in relation to my art practice. This stems from deciding this name in a realisation about my gender. At the time I felt like a cloud, this absorption of different parts of my life manifesting as a trillion different meanings in the shape of a dreamlike form. The choice to go by this name at university was intentional, and I was taking a chance on change to feel more comfortable in myself. Truthfully, I did not realise how this view of myself as Cloud and my art practice had become so intertwined. On the other end of my university art practice, Cloud is definitely my truest form when being creative. I place a lot of importance on names and even though I still feel a level of comfort in my original or birthname, Cloud will always been the epitome of my creativity. Like a drag queen or a musician, Cloud works that way.

How did you get into art and writing?

I did not grow up in a creative family. None of my parents, siblings or extended family were particularly encouraging of art. My sister drew sometimes and took it as a GCSE but she had what I would classify as typical art skills. Good at anatomy and can paint. For a lot of my childhood, a lot of play was through sewing, craft or writing. When my parents saw how developed my vocabulary and literacy skills were, I was encouraged to work on that. In year 2, I wrote my first ever poem during a Christmas activity and from there I fell in love with storytelling as my personal art form. I was known for my wonderful plagiarism and loved retelling renditions of classic fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood through performance. Reading was a constant throughout my childhood and my adolescence, especially in these times which I did not explore art, because it allowed me to exercise my imagination and create elaborate visuals in my head. When I started blogging at fourteen, I became obsessed with visuals in terms of branding and I consider this the start of an unintentional foray back into art. I ended up taking Graphic Communication at GCSE and it helped me view an alternative look at art that was not just drawing and painting. Fast forward to university, I was terrified of committing to art at a degree level because of job insecurity. So, I picked Interior Design which seemed like a happy medium but after a week I found myself on Textile Design for Interiors and after a miserable year of commercial creativity, I rediscovered myself through Creative Arts Practice. Three years on from that decision, I have had the opportunity to both reconnect with a love of teaching and a love of creating. My final project combines every single aspect of art and writing that I have been chasing since I was younger.

Where do you see yourself postgrad?

Short answer: completing my PGCE, touring occasionally with my work to talk about being an artist in schools and working on developing my novel.

Long answer: Incredibly challenged and stressed during my PGCE. Scrambling for opportunities to write more fiction and looking at pitching to a literary agent. Considering staying in education and doing an MA for creative writing, while having no idea how to pay for the damn thing. Scrapping the idea of staying in education even though I love learning. Somehow finding nannying jobs that can pay for my way through my ECT and perhaps get enough experience to do so full time if a teaching job is hard to come by. Potentially get an experience in TV and follow my dreams of being the most colourful person on CBBies. Make the crochet accessories that I have been dying to sell. Consider moving cities... or some other country in the UK... Finish learning Swedish, but properly this time. Return to teaching and be content in having a normal, unadventurous artist life.

Where and when can I get your work?

All my work will be available to by at my degree show very soon. After the show, you are able to email to enquire about purchasing any craft work or books. On my Instagram and here on the website, there will also be a form for commissions from July 2025.

Thank you for reading this introduction of sorts. There will be an reintroductory video up on my Instagram very soon if you want to hear more. My next few posts include:

My Reading Mast List: every book that has inspired my art and writing

The Degree Show Review

Breaking Down Process

A look into my sketchbooks

I love you random person and have a wonderful day wherever you are.

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