The Charco Blog

Sophie Wardle discusses Art, Community, and Preston Bus Station

We met with Sophie Wardle, who told us how she uses art to explore her Parkinson’s and herself, and how she’s become engaged with the community as a result.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 37, Sophie had to leave her much-loved job as an accountant due to the stresses of the role. Undeterred, she went on to study an MA in Fine Art, despite being a graduate in Physics; now, at 51, she’s the founder of a Gloucestershire-based artist’s studio and exhibition space, and is herself a successful artist.

Sophie’s artistic endeavours began not long after her diagnosis. Resigning as an accountant due to the high levels of stress and travel required, she decided to pursue an MA in Fine Art and a career as an artist. Her  subsequent projects have been as varied and fascinating as you might expect from someone whose talents stretch from the scientific to the creative.

Lessons learned from Preston Bus Station

She shows us a painting she’s working on, a landscape that hints at shapes without being specific, which one of our team says reminds them of London as seen from the banks of Thames. Sophie’s glad to hear this; she prefers to have her work open to interpretation, rather than making her own idea obvious. She’s delved into a variety of mediums, with this particular piece being a mixture of “acrylic, stitching, polyfiller, crayon, and charcoal” to create a fascinating, multi-layered, Rauschenberg-esque painting.

Internal Landscape (a work in progress)
Internal Landscape (a work in progress)

This emphasis on individual interpretation is something that Sophie is clearly fascinated by. Her works involve what people think and feel, and are left deliberately open to discussion. To this end, and for the final part of her MA, she did a project on Preston Bus Station.

 “I come from Preston originally, and my final piece was triggered by the 50th birthday of Preston Bus Station. I collected people’s stories and thoughts about the bus station, and then turned it into an installation. I wanted to find out what it meant to people from Preston; it’s such a big, dominating feature, and so many people use it.” She laughs and shakes her head. “It’s really, really sad,  but I actually like Preston Bus Station, for so many reasons.’

People’s memories of the bus station may have been the focus of her project, but it’s her own feelings about it that are most telling. “You can’t be pretentious about Preston Bus Station. It has these amazing tiles on the wall; I’ve even got one of those tiles in my cupboard! But it’s impossible to be pretentious about it.” While an unpretentious approach to Fine Art is interesting, Sophie admits that it wasn’t for everyone. “I carried out the whole MA speaking plainly, but it was difficult. I got shot down for it a few times. I just find this concept of ‘arty talk’ very hard. I respect it, but I’m afraid I can’t join in on it.” Sophie’s undoubtedly someone who knows herself, and sticks to her vision regardless of what anyone else may say.

Sophie gained many things from her MA. One of the most important parts was a “professional collaboration module”, which has clearly had a lasting impact on Sophie; she’s gone on to make artistic collaborations a massive part of her life. During the MA, she founded Nau Arts in Cheltenham. “So many people say ‘I can’t do anything, I can’t even draw a stick’! Then they start painting and they produce something they like and lose themselves in it. It’s incredible.” Sophie’s desire to see more people helped by art has led to a number of events; most recently, she held an exhibition for a charity called Art Shape. “They do a lot of work with artists who are differently abled. They’ve helped me over the years, so I returned the favour and we had a joint exhibition!” This emphasis on involving the community and getting as many people to try their hand at creative means of expression is clearly something that’s important to Sophie. “I see the whole venue as increasingly becoming a community place”, she tells us, with an obvious pride in her voice.

A more creative life

“After working in sciences and finance, I’ve returned to art, and a more creative life.”  It’s hard to imagine Sophie working in the high-powered world of accountancy; she seems every bit the artist now, with a deep body of work and several accomplishments to her name.

Picture of Rob Rinder, Moments of Strength, 1, B(us) : Preston Bus Station at 50

Her Parkinson’s has become one of the subjects of her art, with Sophie “increasingly starting to express opinions and emotions around the issue of Parkinson’s itself”. At the recent Parkinsons.Art Exhibition at the OXO Gallery in London, Sophie sold a painting she conceived as communicating her experience of Parkinson’s. From a series, she considers them artworks “which try to tackle the issues that we face.” Her artistic style is unique and distinct, and has clearly taken time to develop; her Parkinson’s, far from restricting her output, has instead become another part of her creative process.  “I try to continue to work when I just feel like hell, and in fact a lot of that landscape was done when I wasn’t feeling good at all,” gesturing to the work she showed us earlier. “I think some of the pictures are actually better for it.” It’s clear that painting is something that has become central to Sophie’s life, helping her not only to express her experience of her Parkinson’s, but also as a way of using her creative talent to cope with some of the more painful symptoms.

Sophie’s art and outlook on life have evidently been influenced by her artistic idols. There are many famous artists reflected in her work, from Robert Rauschenberg to Eileen Agar, but perhaps the most important influence on Sophie comes from Tracey Emin. “I’ve got a lot of time for Emin”, Sophie says; she’s a big fan. The reason for her affinity is unsurprising, given their similarity of outlook; in Sophie’s own words, “she’s of herself; I like her.” The authenticity and originality seen in Emin’s personal and unwavering work is reflected in Sophie’s own art. 

Into the wider community

Though Sophie has always been interested in communities, she admits that involving herself with Parkinson’s groups had been a bit of a struggle.  “I have got a group of friends online who were all sort of diagnosed around the same time as me, but apart from a couple of notable exceptions, real people I haven’t really met. That probably says more about me than the availability of groups.” Each person deals with their Parkinson’s differently, and Sophie is as unique as everyone else in the Parkinson’s community. “Everybody is different. Some people dive straight into it and start raising loads of money for Parkinson’s UK straight away, and some people go and hide in the corner for a bit. It just depends what kind of person you are, really.”

Alex and Tom from Charco chatting to Sophie

Nevertheless, Sophie began to connect with people in similar situations to her. She met a woman at the gym who had been recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and had begun raising money through cycling and charity events. While Sophie decided to take an artistic route instead, the two kept in touch, and she put Sophie in touch with others like her. “She is really good at assembling groups of people with young onset Parkinson’s; she set up a group of people to have a coffee morning, and I was sitting next to Emma. We got chatting, Emma and I; she’s got a scientific background like me, as I did Physics at University. We got on, and she told me all about you guys, and the rest is history.” Emma, who herself was the subject of a recent Charco blog, also found herself increasingly drawn towards finding a community, which you can read about here. 

Though Sophie still prefers to remain in the art world, she has become more open about her Parkinson’s, partially due to the help of groups such as these. Nevertheless, it’s not an easy thing to discuss, and Sophie agrees that everyone has to take their own time to come to terms with their Parkinson’s. “Most people don’t talk about Parkinson’s when they get diagnosed. I didn’t tell anyone for a long time. I’m really open about it now, but I’ve had a lot of practice.”

All Perfection is False

Sophie has also become involved on the social media platform Hyprr, which specialises in sharing and selling  users’ art. “Parkinsons.art introduced me to the digital work of Alex Echo on Hyprr. That’s another branch of what I do. If you look on my website you’ll see there’s a big red piece called ‘All perfection is false’, which is digital only. I’m quite interested now in this idea of non-tangible assets and all of that malarkey!” She’s kept herself up to date with all the new developments in the art world, and is introducing us to new platforms and artists where the Parkinson’s community can express themselves and demonstrate their talent to a wider audience than ever before.

Chaos all the time

Sophie’s artistic endeavours have had wide-reaching benefits. She’s become more open and accepting of her Parkinson’s, even using the difficult times to her advantage, creating fantastic works of art. She’s also made a space for others to be creative and explore themselves and their own victories and challenges, and has held events that have helped to bring the healing powers of art to a wide array of people. At one point in the interview, her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of her kids coming home from school. Sophie is the proud mother of two children, with one of her sons already following in his mother’s footsteps by taking GCSE art. It’s amazing that she finds time to do so many things, but what is perhaps the key to her success is revealed to us toward the end of our talk.

Dave the cat

Dave, one of her two cats, comes in and begins to yowl loudly. Sophie shows him to us; he stands majestically, meowing for food. “Now the cat’s decided to come in! This is one thing you will find out about me,” she tells us, laughing and stroking his head, “it’s like chaos all the time.” Sophie’s particular brand of chaos is something that has worked very well for her, and we can’t wait to see what she does next!

To see more of Sophie’s art, please visit her website, or visit Nau Arts to find out more about her art space and gallery.