Amanda Hancock

I am a visual artist researching and exploring printmaking techniques as a means of describing imagined narratives. Through ongoing interrogation, drawing, making, and writing, these narratives evolve – but it's through a combination of print processes that the stories unfold.

My current research began after discovering jars of many shapes and sizes, each containing unidentifiable preserves. This encounter has led me to lithography, finding its autographic qualities allow me to capture these enigmatic vessels and an affinity with their maker.

In a previous body of work, a discarded ball of blue wool unravelling in the street became the catalyst for an installation of textural etchings and carborundum collagraphs based on irregular paving patterns, cast iron grids and makers' marks. Each print has a corresponding blue-thread collage

Developing long-term projects allows my work to ebb and flow, the fusion of curiosity, concept and process resulting in images that relate to one another irrespective of technique. 

Following a year-long Fellowship Residency at Artlab Contemporary Print Studio in Preston, I embarked on an AA2A residency also at Artlab in 2024/25. This opportunity represents a shift in my learning and research, with the facilities to explore lithography alongside my wider creative practice. Part of the University of Lancashire (UCLan), Artlab CPS is described as ‘a hub for incubating ideas and methods, developing innovative thinking about printmaking as a fine art discipline’.

Before a career shift from design for print to printmaking, I made a conscious decision to explore traditional print techniques on the Complete Printmaker Course at Hot Bed Press in Salford, where I remain a member. I’m also a member of the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham, North Wales, both of which provide access to amazing facilities and the camaraderie of fellow printmakers!