Light Art Studio

A chance conversation

Light Art began in May 2010 following a chance conversation between designer Myra Heller and engineer Steve Creedon:

I told Myra about a grinning dog lamp I'd seen a few days before. She laughed and said
'I designed that!'
.

And a passion for creating things

Steve was a civil engineer turned software developer looking for a chance to start building real things again as well as virtual ones.

Myra’s journey to Light Art began much earlier in Infant School where she made giant clay pots and animals as soon as she could get hold of enough clay. Travelling on though education with a fairly obsessive attachment to making art, Myra left school early and got a job in her teens designing a local magazine for Haringey libraries and putting on local art exhibitions.

By the age of 19 she’d saved up enough money to travel and went on a 6 month journey to the US where she stayed for a short time before travelling on to Mexico City and the state of Oaxaca settling in the ceramic making village of Santa Maria Atzompa. This was one of those ‘life changing’ experiences that inspired Myra both artistically and culturally.

Returning to England she took a BA. course in theatre design at Central St Martins College of art. Wanting to do giant paintings, tiny models, architecture, lighting, acting, literature, fashion, jewellery all at the same time, theatre design was the only thing that was going to combine just about all of it. There she met Jim Whiting, an extraordinary, brilliant (and just possibly crazy) kinetic sculptor. Jim made very large scaffolding structures that supported dozens robotic, mechanical life size animatronic beings.

Myra lived and worked with Jim for 5 years helping him with exhibitions such as ‘Heavenly Bodies’ on the roof of the National Theatre and designing the sets for short films for Channel 4 and for Godley and Crème who directed a video for Herbie Hancock which entirely consisted of Jim’s work and won a Grammy Award for best visual video. This led Myra on to design dozens of pop promos including ‘Sweetest Girl’ for Madness which involved her casting the head and making a replica of each member of the band.

Light Art

Myra settled down and had two children. Tired of working in ‘black boxes’ she completely changed careers and retrained in horticulture. Witnessing how physically restricted children were in inner city schools she was inspired to set up ‘OCRA’ - Outdoor Classrooms Raising Awareness, with a group of 5 other like-minded parents.

Now Myra splits her time between helping Hackney children understand the importance and the benefits of growing things whilst running Light Art which allows her & Steve to realise their slightly old-fashioned passion for making things.