Izzy Rooke is a Marketing Manager (Business Partnering) in our Advancement function. Izzy’s job involves developing and implementing campaigns to support recruitment across the Arts and Humanities Faculty, as well as building its reputation globally. She works closely with academics in the faculty and her colleagues in the marketing and communications team to find creative ways to share their projects with wider targeted audiences.
Izzy also has a favourite pastime that she shared with Dialogue.
Tell us about your hobby…
Alongside my day job in the marketing team, I also work as an artist – predominantly working on large scale still life pieces and landscapes.
How did you get into art?
I am lucky to come from a creative family which includes both professional artists and amateur painters. I also grew up very rurally, and as kids we were tasked with finding our own entertainment – be this climbing hay bales or making things - so being creative was very much part of my upbringing. I loved art at school and studied it until A Level.
While I continued to paint, draw, and attend life drawing classes throughout university and during my 20s, it very much took a back seat to my work, social life and other hobbies.
It was when I started a family, which coincided with lockdown, that I really started to give more time to my art and to develop my style. Facing the dual challenges of becoming a mother and the social isolation stemming from the pandemic, I found painting became an important outlet for my mental health.
My biggest challenge has been to develop the confidence to start showing people my work. As it’s something so personal, you always feel the weight of other people’s judgement. The first step was creating a website and an Instagram account. The next step has been to submit my work for exhibition opportunities in galleries and public spaces.
I have been fortunate in recent years to have the opportunity to exhibit in some fabulous places. While my mum obviously remains my best customer(!) it has been wonderful to see complete strangers buy my work or request a commission.
Why is it important to you?
When I have a painting on my easel, I am constantly reviewing it – trying to work out what is wrong and how I can correct it. It’s a problem-solving exercise as well as an opportunity for self-expression. Whilst my spare time can be limited with two small children rampaging around, I enjoy spending my evenings painting as it almost feels like an act of mindfulness, detaching from every day mundane tasks and finding personal space.
While living and working in Leeds, I volunteered for Inkwell Arts – a creative wellbeing service run by Leeds Mind. I very much enjoyed being part of this creative community and seeing the wider value that the arts can bring to mental health. Last year our team did a volunteering day at RT Projects, a Durham based mental health charity which uses art to help people in the community. Again, the transformative impact that art can have on people’s lives and their sense of self-worth was abundantly clear.
Whatever your creative outlet – be it gardening, writing, dancing, or baking – I strongly believe that giving yourself proper time for it is vital for your wellbeing.
Find out more about my work:
Instagram: @isobelrookeart
Website: www.isobelrooke.co.uk