Art Whispers brings together creative practitioners from a range of disciplines to create an exhibition inspired by each other.
Using the premise of the old-fashioned party game “Chinese Whispers” a creative practitioner used a phrase for inspiration to create an artwork. They then sent this on to another creative practitioner to use as their inspiration to create an artwork, who then passed their response to another creative practitioner and so on.
The collaborative creation took place over the period of a year from 2025 into 2026.
The project aims to create space for creative practitioners to enjoy their own practice, explore the role of creative practitioners in inspiring each other and extend participants’ networks.
With thanks to work experience Sam Gorman for creating a title image reflecting all patchwork of participants in the project.
The initial “whisper” prompt given to Katharine Goda as the first creative practitioner was “care”.
Care
Katharine Goda
Care weaves connections – each strand, different and changing, affecting the whole.
I wanted the poem to hold specific, real instances of care without added context or explanation because this is so often what’s precious about it: someone just knowing what’s needed without it being spoken, this being seen and seeing.
These words celebrate everyday, quiet care: the still hold, the hug, the craft, the knowing someone. At the same time they fanfare its linguistic cognate of drawing attention, through wail, lamentation, chatter, voice, call, outcry.
Colourful, bright and warm care. Damp and loud and out-there care. Vital to life.
Care
Michelle Harland
Sarah Stamp
The ******* Pressure
The artwork sent to me made me think of pressure and extraction, in relation to women, their various societal and the pressure they experience.
For my piece, I intentionally selected materials available in my studio or those commonly found in my practice. This material selection plays a central role in this work.
The chosen materials are each linked to femininity in distinct ways. The pink air-dry clay, being notably softer than the hard, angular stones, evokes a sense of vulnerability and tension. Additionally, clay is often used in craft activities with children, further reinforcing associations with nurturing and domesticity. Other elements—such as sequins, glitter, and metallic finishes—are emblematic of glamour and highlight additional facets of women’s experiences, including the societal expectations and pressures connected to appearance and presentation.
Lucy Ray
Emerging From the Earth
I used modulating arpeggiated chords. I experimented with these I until I found the right vibe/key for Sarah’s sculpture. I was influenced in the piano part by the Album Blue by Joni Mitchell. The lyrics “emerging from the earth/silver and gold” were taken directly from the visual.
“Between a rock and a hard place” came out through free improvisation. Having established the musical palette I then improvised the music dropping in the words as I felt it in real time. At this stage the piece was an improvisation rather than a composition. After a few passes I then recorded, and this composition was created in this moment.
Alison McManus
100 Things I Don’t Have Time to Write About
Blurb: The piece of music I was sent elicited a sense of mournful longing which coincidentally arrived when our family was trying to come to terms with the loss of my mother-in-law. The words in the previous piece, ‘emerging from the earth’ reminded me of motherhood more generally, and I wanted to weave in the reference to ‘silver and gold’ through the use of imagery in my poem. Finally, ‘between a rock and a hard place’ became the attempt to sleep next to a large dog on a very hot night, simultaneously comforting and uncomfortable.
Shortest Night/Longest Day
Linda D Devo
My response came the day after I received Alison’s piece, spontaneously when on a walk on the beach. There I encountered something I’d not seen before; an unusual cloud formation uncannily resembling a robed figure traversing the sky. It resonated immediately with the spirit on the landing, the Virgin Mary on the wardrobe, the blue of that particular June morning. I photographed it, printed it on my return home and painted in the other resonance that chimed of the dog in the bed from the writing. The ordinary and the numinous, caught at the threshold.
Silent Sea Breeze
Megan Watson
The artwork passed on to me was a painting depicting a moody seaside sunset that felt both surreal and deeply familiar, reminding me of my hometown and walks along the Seaton Carew shoreline. It inspired reflections on place, memory, and the sea as both comfort and distance. My triptych responds through gestures of movement and nostalgia.
Nothingness
Mandy Barker
“Nothingness” is a reflection on what I took from the previous piece: human existence, surrender, stillness and connection with the natural world. Something we often forget within our busy, capitalist, day-to-day lives. I wanted my response to use analogue techniques to represent human imperfection, incorporating handwriting, texture, illustration and collage. As we are constantly striving to be productive, the original work made me reflect more deeply on integration with nature. I asked myself the question ‘but what if nothingness is where we are meant to be?’ and created my piece in response to that. The piece layers organic textures, handwritten thoughts and a curled human form within a circular landscape that feels both planetary and womb-like, suspended between disappearance and belonging. Through collage and abstraction, the work explores nothingness as something peaceful and connective, a quiet dissolving of the boundaries between self, memory and the natural world.
Nothing
Kate Gorman
Two words leapt out at me from Mandy’s piece: “something” and “nothing”.
It is so easy to feel that we aren’t important. That we are nothing. But we aren’t. We exist. We are something. And we are precious.
the “no” collector
Heidi Williamson
I enjoyed the double no in the first two words (NOt NOthing) and it made me think about how children go through a period of testing out ‘no’ as an answer to everything! But as an adult (perhaps especially as s female) the pressure to say yes to everything builds. It was interesting to think of treasuring ‘no’s’ as a hobby.
Heidi Williamson is a Writing for Life Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund, running reading and writing groups in workplace and community settings, including charities, libraries, hospices, and Recovery Colleges. She also teaches for the Poetry Society and The Writing Coach. She is published by Bloodaxe: Electric Shadow (2011), The Print Museum (2016), and Return by Minor Road (2020).
Collector’s Relics
Jessica Matilda
After reading Heidi’s poem The No Collector, I was drawn to the idea of ‘no’ being treated as something gathered and treasured throughout life. The poem describes rejection being collected from childhood into adulthood, eventually becoming a guarded ‘hoard’. In response, I created Collector’s Relics, using handmade Fimo clay ‘no’s’ placed inside a treasure chest. By turning the repeated word into physical objects, I explored how negative experiences and refusals can accumulate over time, becoming personal possessions that carry emotional value and memory.
Jilly Johnston
That word made me pause. I realized how often I say “yes” when I mean “no.” For women, “no” is strength, a hard-fought right, a line drawn with clarity. Using it can be scary, yet it is undeniably freeing—a declaration of self and agency.
My image reflects that feeling.
Stacey Hogarth
When I was passed along a beautiful image of a woman baring her chest, my first thought was panic. I struggle with the human form as I primarily draw nature/animals. The image gave me ethereal vibes with the flecks around her, in my eyes like butterflies or fire flies.
I leaned into the ethereal vibes and done my research, finding references and ideas. Eventually, deciding to use digital art and semi realism since it’s my comfort zone, this is the response I produced.
The Last Step
Gillian Smellie
Despite the kneeling pose of the woman I knew I didn’t want to make her submissive, kneeling in front of anything or anybody. I wanted her to be powerful. I don’t write fantasy, so the mask and body paint had to be rooted in normality. She also appears to be in deep thought. There it was – a grand party where something goes horribly wrong.
Untitled One
Katie Koetsier
As an artist, I currently layer images of found objects and landscapes on acetate and build an abstract piece of work through the use of light, stacking and smudging of the ink.
I’ve always been drawn to the use of light and composition in my work and finding those things in everyday life. I also find it intriguing to manipulate the light and by physically layering my photography I am able to do so while also creating something completely abstract, making something new out of something familiar.
After reading “The Last Step” I took some time to take in my surroundings and what I could find in my environment that reminded me of the work. I think I took abstract to the extreme with this idea but it is interesting to see how we can draw parallels from each other even when we are so different.
For example: The acidity and vibrant blood color flesh of an orange reminiscent of the possibilities of human nature. The knotted tight rope we walk and our actions decide whether we fall and which way. The coldest of snow, like the harsh coldness of a person and the social and materialistic ladder some of us climb that is inconsequential to what life is truly about but many of us fall victim to.
Heart Murmurs
Hope Caitlin
An orchid flower lumen print developed in my home, inspired by the vibrant textures and colours of Katie’s piece, with the mixing of mediums and items from the natural world. It was my first time experimenting with this medium! The first glimpses of spring that glittered into my living room, preserving the imprint of new beginnings.
