About Milly Parker
Milly Fern Parker is an Illustrator and general creative based in the midlands, UK. She recently graduated the BA Illustration course at Leeds Arts University (2021) and currently resides in Leeds as a freelance illustrator, working on a variety of personal and commissioned projects. She enjoys experimenting with a multitude of analogue processes, compiling and manipulating these digitally in order to add a playful, handmade aspect to her work. She is heavily inspired by storytelling, whether this draws from interviews, song writing, personal nostalgia or external folklore and mythology. This nostalgic and childlike influence is apparent in the way she uses bold, fun, and exciting shapes to communicate and adapt to each brief. Her most recent project explores the colour green in relation to medieval folklore and bestiaries, using rug punching/ creating wall hangings as a primary process.
‘PLAY’ (Three colour Risograph zine, 2020)
Milly’s zine investigates how gender is perceived and experienced by young children. “From an early age, gender roles are engrained into our minds. Of course, there is nothing wrong with enjoying stereotypically male or female media! The harm comes when this media is made only accessible to one gender and discouraged to another. Children should be encouraged to PLAY however they wish, whether this is with dinosaurs, dolls, and anything In between.” Despite the possibly intense subject matter, the zine explores this topic in a charming, nostalgic, and light-hearted way.
‘Norwood Part 1 and 2’ (Two colour screen print series, 2020)
These prints are inspired by Milly’s experience of living in Leeds as a student. They explore the emotional duality of living away from home in a student area: Acknowledging feelings of isolation and loneliness, and contrasting these with feelings of greater independence, increased sense of self, and the impact of new friendships/ community.
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