Born and raised in county Durham the north of England still has a central place
in my life. I have travelled extensively and worked professionally in Switzerland
and the USA.
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I began a Fine Art Degree later in life after a professional career in mental
health both as a nurse and psychoanalytic psychotherapist in the National
Health Service. Concern with vulnerable bodies and minds and the lived
experience not surprisingly found its way into my art work and the way this can
be expressed in the making process.
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I have travelled extensively throughout my life and have made recent trips to
India to explore and experience the Indian crafts of block printing dyeing and
the hand weaving of silk. The place of cloth colour and the handmade still
playing an important part in Indian culture as we become more immersed in a
digital world.
Biography
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Artist
Statement
Through textiles and cloth we can communicate personal and social narratives
and explore cultural identity. Textiles can be the link that brings people
together in society and open up shared values and concerns. Cloth and textiles
can commemorate events and can act as propaganda and social commentary.
They can also shape our ideas and identity.
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As an artist my work depicts a constant connection between body and mind
and how the two interplay to form both visual images and evoke emotional
states of mind. This is not only what is being displayed on the surface but also
what lies beneath for both the artist and the viewer. The haptic qualities of
cloth evoking ideas of physical and emotional comfort bearing witness to the
lived experience of those who wear and handle it. These mediums almost have
an unsurpassed ability to express ideas about the relationship between touch
memory and longing. They can also help us consider significant ideas around
damage repair and reconciliation.
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I work with the medium of cloth and thread to make individual sculpted forms
that express the way we feel in our internal world and its impact on our
everyday lives. Using video and sound to add further expression and depth to
the viewed experience I try to create a sense of where we are in the world in
relation to our bodies, our sensuous experience, our social and cultural
uniqueness and our longings in relation to memory and touch. Collaboration
with others in direct relation to the material form is the focus of what I do. I
explore the relationship between materiality and form introducing ideas that
move between art, psychoanalysis and sociological disciplines and
communicate sensitive readings of human pain and experience in the
relationship to making.
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I have collaborated with singing groups, recording artists audio/ visual artists
and fine artists specialising in natural dyeing and textiles.