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Typewriter artist to draw live at library event

Keira Rathbone A close-up of a typewriter with a piece of paper in it featuring a portrait of a woman, created using the keys. There is brown paper behind it. Keira Rathbone
Keira Rathbone says she calls the drawings "epictions in type", "typics" or "typictions"

An artist who uses a typewriter to make art will be doing live drawings at a library.

Keira Rathbone will draw pictures of people using what she calls her "time-travelling" writing device on 10 May.

Each one will take about 10 minutes and people can walk away with a "piece of work that's about them", she said.

The event at Falmouth Library will run from 10:00 BST to 17:00.

Keira Rathbone A piece of artwork of a city and a river, in the foreground is the river, in the mid-ground is a bridge. There are blocks of flats in the background. Keira Rathbone
Keira Rathbone has been doing typewriter art for over 20 years

Rathbone said she started doing typewriter artwork about 22 years ago when she realised she could better express herself through art than words.

"When I had the typewriter in front of me I wanted to type but I didn't know what to say so I just started pressing."

She explained that rather than seeing a row of letters, she saw a corner or a shape.

"That's when the characters started looking like shapes and textures to me," she added.

Rathbone said the typewriter "almost felt like a time-travelling device" and she loved using it to interact with the public.

She described how the typewriter takes people back, captures them in the present, and the experience "sticks in their heads later".

"People can have a piece of work that's about them... the essence of them, sort of boiled down to minimal characters," she added.

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