Artists Statement

After completing a Foundation Course and a Degree in Ceramics at Central St. Martins School of Art I worked as an artist in residence at Dorton House R. N.I.B. School and SpringHallows School for children with autism. I also worked with adults with mental health issues before studying a P.G.C.E. course at Goldsmiths and teaching art in a secondary school for two years. I then spent three years focusing on my own work, mainly ceramics, whilst living in Spain .

I have always enjoyed working with surface textures – just as it is possible to start with the same basic ‘shape’ and make infinite variations by manipulating the surface, my prints start with the same collograph ( an image made by collaging different layers and textures and then printed using a press) and then each print is worked individually using metal leaf, wax, enamel and other materials.
I have begun to experiment with using my prints to make enamel transfers and kiln firing these into glass, sometimes with layers of coloured enamels or metal leaf.

My work has often used the written word as its starting point and for its inspiration. The prints I am currently working on draw on both remembered poetry and literature (and children’s rhymes) and my recollections of golden icons in Spanish churches.

he use of metal leaf brings reflection which changes with the light and has its roots in the magpie-like enjoyment of sparkling objects and the child’s pleasure transformed; words create worlds and anything is possible – ‘when fish flew like birds amongst the branches’.