The key to creativity (From Bournemouth Echo)

The key to creativity

9:55am Monday 12th January 2009 in Search By Gavin Haines

PERCHED on the promenade with her retro orange typewriter, Keira Rathbone sets about drawing Bournemouth Pier.

It’s a picture that will take her nearly 30 hours to create, using a combination of letters, numbers and symbols, as well as her artistic flair and unfailing patience.

The end product is one of many fascinating and impressive works that have been created by Keira, who bought her typewriter from a charity shop in Poole before she headed to UWE Bristol to do a fine art degree.

“Somewhere in the middle of the first year, after not really having anything to write, I began experimenting with drawing with it,” says Keira. “Quite quickly I realised I would be exploring this much further and I’ve been typing for about six years now.”

Keira’s superb work, which includes portraits as well as views and vistas, has generated interest from the likes of Vanity Fair magazine and a host of London-based fashion designers.

Although it might not sound overly strenuous, typewriter art can be tiring work.

See Kiera in action here

“If I have been typing for more than an hour I have to stop and have a break,” says Keira. “It’s actually not the tapping finger that aches but the arm that moves the paper.”

Keira is currently exhibiting her work at the Grove Studio, 134 Seabourne Road.

The exhibition will be open until Friday, January 30, when a grand closing party will take place.

“There will be some music, wine, and I will be doing some live typing,” says Keira.

“There will also be another chance to watch the Delph Wood Letters film of me typing in the woods.”