Biog
I’m a flexible, creative professional, a visual artist and writer with a background in facilitating, online/ content marketing, blogging and websites.
I write about being creative and how it can help our wellbeing and mental health; Wild swimming, self-development and making space for healing, access within the arts and barriers that exist.
I live with a chronic illness and explore ways to live a full life and make art whilst dealing with that. I notice the little details and I have a perpetual curiosity. I am always learning and discovering. I come alive when I can start with an idea and turn it into a tangible thing and when I am distilling organising and simplifying information or processes. I am always asking ‘why?’ and trying to lead with empathy and compassion.
Statement
My work is a visual recording and translation of my experience through drawing, a method of processing information and an outlet for my need to create order and visual harmony. Using diverse mediums such as collage, printmaking, assemblage, sculpture , photography and moving image.
I am drawn to shapes, lines and angles in the built environment. I look at buildings and see shapes, angles, colours and textures. I find calm in arranging and collating or documenting the perfect line or combination of colours. I notice the temporary, collecting traces and am always searching for aesthetic harmony.
Sometimes I work in close detail, a composition or found arrangement in the street. Sometimes with a wider viewpoint, a landscape or expanse of sky and I find beauty in unintended arrangements or seemingly random and purely functional choices. I like the way that the natural world is organised and the way that humans can create beauty without realising.
I often explore the topography of a place and attempt to re-tell its recent history through a site-specific study of form, line and colour. Sometimes through static sculptural forms, other times through moving image, paper-based work or the written word, always preferring to work quickly and intuitively.
I also use this process to explore ideas around social issues, mental health and wellbeing, how we communicate and how we can make a change. I have become interested in Neurodiversity in art and as an artist managing a chronic illness, uncovering how we can bring visibility to our struggles with hidden illness and adapt our practice to succeed alongside able-bodied artists.
Artist CV
Based in West Yorkshire
b. Warrington 1984
Exhibitions and projects
2018 'Good Luck Charm' included in The Art Of Magic group show in The Horse Hospital, London, Robinwood Mill, Todmorden and Analogue Farm, Rossendale
2018 'The Earth Runs Red' included in group show 'Diptych, Triptych and Polyptych' at PS Mirabel, Manchester
2017 'Aquisition Preserve' produced for Islington Mill open studios for Manifest Arts Festival
2017 Picture Stockport exhibition 'Painting the Town' animation
2016 'The Chaos before the Reforming' IMAA group show, Islington Mill
2016 IMPACT conference 'Representing Methodology' group show
2016 'The Earth Runs Red' Doremifasolasido Artist group show
2016 'A Different Kind of Map' window exhibition, Nexus, Manchester
2015 Free for Arts Festival (FFA) group show : Manchester Craft and Design Centre
2015 Islington Mill Art Academy residency final show
2015 IMPACT conference 'Representing Data' group show
Residencies and commissions
2017 'Let's Talk: Conversations through Making' as part of 'A day and a Night' IMAA group show/ event
2017 'Painting the Town' Manchester Histories workshops and commissioned animation
2016 ‘Doremifasolasido’ Residency, Florence Arts Centre, Cumbria
2016 IMPACT 'Representing Data' visual art commission
2016 'Our Streets' Animation commissioned by Cartwheel Arts
2015 Islington Mill Art Academy residency: Regents Trading Estate
2015 IMPACT 'Representing Data' visual art commission
Talks and workshops
2017 Let's Talk: Conversations through Making as part of A day and a Night IMAA group show
2014-2017 Art for Wellbeing workshops - various
2014 World Mental Health day large scale zine publication
2014 Bookmaking/ Repurposing books workshop
2014 Invention: creating small scale artworks workshop
2012 Liverpool Biennial weekend: The Mobile Art School talk
Writing and publications
2016 'The Earth Runs Red' Doremifasolasido Artist publication
2016 'One Day' Islington Mill Art Academy publication
2016 'A Different Kind of Map: Imprint of a trading estate. Published in Stepz II: Between the Rollerama and The Junkyard
Screenings and awards
2008 Winner of Best Music Video category in Roots to Shoots Competition
2008 Top 3 short listed and interviewed for 4mations animation funding
2005-2010 Animation screenings: Cornerhouse, BBC big screen, New Islington Festival, Salford Film Festival,
Huddersfield Literature festival, Manchester literature festival, Bochum international Videofest, Magma film fest Sicily,
Sadho Poetry fest India
Education
2017 Screen Printing at The Egg Factory, Hebden Bridge
2012 - 2017 Self- directed education at Islington Mill Art Academy
2014 First Aid 3 day course
2011 The Complete Bookbinder – Hotbed press course
2002 - 2005 Photography with Audio Visual Media BA Hons, UCLAN (2:1)
Click here for my facilitation/ community work CV and employment history