Who are you and what do you do?
Hi, I’m Candy Joyce (aka Flipping Zombies) I’m a freelance designer, illustrator and toy maker. I run a local artists group called the Chelmsford Creative Collective who meet on the second Tuesday of the month at the United Brethren, everyone is very welcome to join us in person or on Facebook. I am a trustee of the Chelmsford Festival and I also run the Window Gallery which is a small shop front gallery for local artists to display their work. I have also recently started playing Cello for the inimitable local band Hell Feeder.

What – or who – inspires you?
In my personal work I’m inspired by quirks of nature, language and monsters (especially zombies).

How did you get to this point?
I moved back to Essex two years ago and struggled to find the creative scene here in Chelmsford so decided to bring the artists to me by hosting a pop-up exhibition at Asylum. 15 local artists applied and from there I started meeting people and hearing about other events. In January of this year I decided to start the Chelmsford Creative Collective so that we could all share information about local events, support and promote each other and collaborate on projects. I was also very lucky to be offered the shop front on Broomfield road which I decided to turn in to the the Window Gallery as a place to show off the work of all these talented people that I had met. During this time I also became involved in the Chelmsford Festival which has been another great experience for meeting local creators and forming connections with local business owners and council members.

What’s been your toughest experience so far?
Turning a dilapidated shop front into a beautiful space for people to display their art work.

What’s your proudest achievement?
Turning a dilapidated shop front into a beautiful space for people to display their art work.

What are you looking forward to?
I’m excited about the Big Draw in October and the Ideas Festival in November which I’ll hopefully be co-ordinating an interesting group project.

As a personal project I would really like to expand the concept of the Window Gallery into a whole shop full of local art, products, food and music.

What single piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t waste your time on things that don’t matter to you and sort out that awful perm!

What’s your guilty pleasure?
I am entirely unrepentant about all of the things that give me pleasure

CCC – https://www.facebook.com/groups/131835237362801/
Window Gallery – https://www.facebook.com/ChelmsfordWindowGallery/
Flipping Zombies – https:www.flippingzombies.co.uk
Hell Feeder – https://soundcloud.com/hell-feeder
Chelmsford Festival – https://www.facebook.com/chelmsfordfestival/