Ian’s work happens at intersections: materialism, the lived environment, animal migrations, multilingualism come together to create wonderful worlds. In 2020, Ian founded Cooked Illustrations as a platform to collaborate with tropical and social scientists from around the world to research ways to improve science communication through new stories and mediums.
He writes:
In my second year of university, a tutor asked who was looking to establish a career in Caerdydd. The group hesitated; my hand shot up.
The following week I found myself thinking how cool it was to be eating Welsh cakes alongside heavy metal nightclub owners, theatre producers and cultural economy professors at a Creative Cardiff event. You can imagine how a confused illustration student felt in that room; being asked about how he felt the creative ecosystem worked in Cardiff, having his opinion respected and placed on the same level as those who really knew their stuff.
This would not be the last time that Creative Cardiff, as an organisation, network and people, would make me feel not just deserving of being part of a bigger industry, but invaluable in my experience. Several years later, just out of uni and not really knowing what I was doing, I went to Creative Cardiff’s presentation about the mapping of the creative economy.
There, I talked about my ideas; and they went beyond listening - offering to help, to keep me in the conversations and point me in the direction of others working in the same sphere.
I was made to feel that Creative Cardiff was there to also support me by providing that most valuable of things for a young creative: being taken seriously.
What got me through the height of the pandemic, when stress and uncertainty buried me under a tonnage of blankets, wasn’t some idealized never-ending energy source those who buy into the cult of entrepreneurship believe in - it was my community. The years I spent connecting to others, both locally and internationally, gave me access to new projects at a time I thought none would come. Beyond the financial, it was this sudden shift in perception: what we once did in competition, now had to be done collaboratively.
Creative Cardiff as a network has always felt like a building’s concierge: invisible most of the time, but willing to help when you need it. They not only helped me to connect with even more amazing people, but also facilitated me as an artist and a business, to experiment in a way that makes tomorrow all the more realistic.
