I completed a BA (Hons) Degree in Art and Visual Culture in 2001 from UWE and a MA in Curatorial Practice in 2011 from Bath Spa University.

During my degree my work explored the relationship between ‘making’ and ‘thinking’, practice and theory and the overarching concern was with how creativity, personal rituals and nature can support wellbeing/mental health and offer hope and beauty in people’s lives, often leading to connection to community/social cohesion. I explored these ideas/questions using printmaking, photography, film-making, kite-making, gardening, live art and sculpture.

During my MA I moved my focus towards creativity and gallery/museum education in green spaces and landscapes. My particular area of study was ‘curating for outdoors’. My research connected wellbeing with nature-connection and creativity and the importance and combination of both of these aspects in supporting individual mental health and larger scale community health.

As with any other art form, gardens and green spaces reflect the cultural, political and economic currents of an era, often mirroring the attitudes and fashions of the time. I proposed that these spaces could successfully be used as galleries without walls to reach a wider and more diverse audience.

I researched and proposed the re-opening of a disused green space in my local neighbourhood, with the idea of creating a storytelling bench and showcasing outdoor sculpture, photography and artworks. This project idea was then carried forward by the local neighbourhood improvement team and local architect students and now exists as a positive ‘pocket park’ community space.

My current creative practice is still experimental and guided by my approach of ‘learning by doing’ and ‘thinking through making’. I explore many different creative processes to work out what is possible, always remaining curious and learning from the materials as I make. I rarely have a set idea on what I will produce but work with what comes, growing ideas as the making happens.

I am drawn to practices that connect my sensory experiences to the landscape and nature. Using natural, found materials, being influenced by a walk, smell, the weather, the sounds outside, fleeting moments, often ephemeral and always looking for hope.

Within my work I explore stories of landscape and our place within it. I am very inspired by Robert McFarlane’s nature writing. Our need for connection to the soil, to cycles of life and our place within nature and landscape. How and why does the land connect us to memory and support our health/or not?

I am on an experimental journey in my creative practice currently, of learning some of the ‘old ways’ of creating that use only natural resources, such as making my own inks, paints, tools and paper. I am layering these processes with maps, photos and found items to record memories of places that have been anchors in my life. Capturing the cycles in my life of ever changing growth, decay and hope.