The Art of Eavesdropping, Edie Medley’s London
Edie Medley combines everybody’s favourite hobby, people watching, with her unique artistic style to create a wonderful series. EJ’s Olivia Vaughan caught up with her.
Words by Olivia Vaughan
Amidst London’s bustling art scene, few voices capture the city’s intimate, everyday poetry quite like illustrator Edie Medley. Based in her native South East London, the Royal College of Art graduate has cultivated a practice that is both deeply observational and wonderfully relatable, transforming snippets of overheard life into compelling visual narratives.
Medley’s journey is one of dedicated craft. She honed her skills first at Manchester School of Art and later with an MA in Visual Communication at the RCA, grounding a lifelong love for drawing as a way “to record and tell stories.” This foundational passion is evident in her work, which feels both fresh and timeless.
Like many artists, Medley has navigated the classic London balancing act, finding creative fuel in an unexpected place: the pub. “Initially I found it difficult to balance the two,” she admits, reflecting on juggling shifts with studio time. A strategic move to weekend shifts provided the structure she needed, but the pub environment itself became a direct source of inspiration. “It’s natural to make work about what you know, and I’ve worked in hospitality for years. My ‘I’m Not Listening’ series started after I heard an argument in a beer garden, but also came from me being behind the bar and thinking ‘how can I use this time?’”.
The series, which beautifully illustrates fragments of overheard conversation, resonates because of its universal quality. When asked if she hesitates to publish such personal snippets, Medley clarifies that her characters are invented, drawn from observation rather than specific individuals. The magic, it seems, is in the shared experience. “People have reached out and said it sounds like a conversation they’ve had or would have with a friend,” she shares, “which I like.”
For an artist on the rise, her methods for sparking new ideas are refreshingly analogue. In a saturated digital industry, she finds creativity in the real world: “Having conversations with people about my work/their work is always useful or going for a walk with no headphones!”
And what’s next for this talented illustrator? The dream remains beautifully straightforward, a goal that suits her storyteller’s heart: “I’ve always wanted to publish a book of comics!” Given her knack for framing the quiet drama of daily life, it’s a project we’ll be eagerly awaiting.
