About Hester Dowling
Hester is a fine art printmaker, who works in screen printing using a range of different media; including photography, collage, and painting.
“I am currently working on a project about self portraits, with the idea of presenting self imposed masks to show the word a more nuanced view, looking both inwardly and outwardly at how we perceive ourselves and how others see us.”
This new project marks a departure from Hester’s previous work, dealing with environmental issues and natural forms. “With this concept I am wanting to experiment with the layers of surface to form a dialogue of upper and lower elements, which incorporate the view of outside forces such as nature, people and opinion.”
Teaching and “failure”
“Teaching art and design showed me another side of the creative process. I learned about enabling other people to realise their own ideas, which I found liberating. It was also complicated because when problems arise they have to be part of the creative process and students need to be aware of this side of the creative process and accept that these ideas and concepts may not work and that this is not a bad thing. Learning from mistakes is often the real breakthrough in creativity.”
Hester as a poet
Alongside her printmaking, Hester is also a writer and poet, currently working on gathering a collection of her existing body of work for publication.
Her poetry is about freedom, choices, and authenticity; reflecting a fascination for the world, on the surface and below, and how the world out of sight informs the world we see. Hester explores aspects of complex emotions, and the conflict of language to convey experience.
Hester is a regularly contributing performer at the monthly King Ink CIC’s ‘Spoken Word Open Mic’ nights at Pop Recs, Sunderland, and was featured as one of the three headlining poets at the Wrtiers’ Shack Poetry Jam in September 2026.
Listen to Hester Dowling on the ArtyParti podcast:
Hester shared some of her poetry at one of our earliest ‘Show & Tell’ events in 2022. She shared two poetical pieces, inspired by real life moments that stuck with her - both whimsical, and heart-gripping.
In this episode of the ArtyParti podcast, recorded at the Show & Tell event, Hester reflects on her poetry which documents her experience of brain scans in a hospital:
“Since I was a kid, I was always fascinated by body mechanics. And it will take me longer to think about moving my finger than it actually takes for that action to happen. Like my brain waves, they have no latency. Everything just happens so instantly.
“Having to think about you as your body is such a surreal experience. And I think seeing it in front of yourself had the same thing. […]
" [Another poet"] Helen Rogers […] took me to hospital. She came in and she said, have you written anything yet? And I went, “no, I don't think I feel like writing anything”. I felt awful and I was scared stiff, I really was. But I've still got the memory of all the tests. I did write it, I wrote it that day. […] I think that was a good thing to capture the actual authentic feeling.
“But I have changed it a bit because, honestly, to present anything medical or anything that is so intensely personal, you have to temper it a bit. It's a bit too much. But yeah, I'm glad I did write something.”