Biography
​Although I have always enjoyed creating, my artistic journey didn't really begin until I accompanied my Mum to a watercolour evening class. I went on to paint landscapes and cityscapes until I decided to take the plunge and go back to college.
I started the educational side of my journey as a mature student moving from a foundation course onto a degree in fine art. I received a First Class BA honours degree from Wirral Metropolitan College in 2009 with the final group exhibition showing 'Human Nature' a large paper installation which I produced during the third year.
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I was awarded a fellowship placement at the same institute for the following year.
As well as using this time to develop my practice and mentor students I finished the year by showing a large body of work based on trees for the fellowship show at the Williamson Art Gallery, which were exhibited as part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial.
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Since then I have been very lucky being incredibly busy, participating in many group shows, exhibiting in solo opportunities, joining residency programs and leading projects in the community.
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I wrote my first commissioned article in 2010, about my experiences of life a year after graduating, written for the Artists Newsletter degree supplement.
That year I also had my first solo show ‘Life in Paper’ showing three years work produced in or on paper and I had work shown at a artist book exhibition at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Centre in New York which was later purchased for their collection.
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My first artists’ residency was in 2011 at Arena Gallery and Studios which finished with a solo show and an artist talk. I have since used residency opportunities to engage the local community in art projects.
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This started in 2012 when I first worked on a community based project for Wigan Libraries, working with children to re-use books to make trees. The opportunity to become Wigan libraries artist in residence came about during which I continued residing as for four years.
I was also one of the SCIBase artists whose work ‘Building Blocks of life’ was shown in Stockholm Independent Art Fair Supermarket 2012. I have shown more recently with them in Jamestown USA, Leeds and Liverpool. I have shown 'Building Blocks of Life' several times with the collection expanding as I collect more mementos.
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In the same year I spent a month as artist in residence at The 'Comma' community art shop, working with the public as part of an empty shop project ‘Comma’.
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Later that year I spent another month working on a residency project at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital for the Bluecoat Display Centre.
Also in 2012 an image of 'Unilocular Slope' from the 'Human Nature' installation was shown on a huge screen as part of the Art Takes Times Square billboard event, at Broadway between 43rd Street and 44th Street, New York City, USA.
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I exhibit regionally, nationally and internationally and have work in private and public collections worldwide including a piece of work 'Sinister Structures' which was purchased in 2013 by a collector for Tate Britain to be held in their Library Artists' Books Collection. An appointment can be made to view this work.
I sell many different types of Sinister Structures from various shaped books and framed works to large installations.
During 2013 I worked on a large commissioned project involving a site specific wall installation for SAICA’s PM11 paper mill at Partington, Manchester, many workshops and an artist talk.
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Inspired by the processes involved in making paper through the paper mill’s machinery, this piece was shaped to represent the cycle taken, combined with inspiration taken from the natural world, including cross sections of trees, flowing water and microscopic images from nature to express SAICA’s dedication to a sustainable future.
This led me to write for an article in The Quarterly, The Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians Edition No. 87 July 2013.
I was asked to show three of my paper installations in CODA Paper Art 2015 'Can't See the Trees for the Forest', 'Forest: Lungs of the World' and 'Out of Palms Way' which was created especially for the exhibition and was shown on the roof terrace area. To accompany the work I held an Artist's Talk to a select audience during my time in Apeldoorn, speaking about my works in paper and the processes involved.
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Prior to travelling to The Netherlands to install the work I was interviewed about it by Kunstbeeld magazine which was showed in the 6th edition of 2015. I was presented with a copy of the magazine at CODA.
My work has featured in several articles including Printmaking Today and a Spotlight article on Practical Sustainability in the Harvard Business Review magazine in which I was the spotlight artist of the month and a photograph 'Back to Your Roots' was used for the cover of 'Thinking Outside the Book' by Augusta Rohrbach.
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I was asked to show many of my works in the sculpture garden ‘Achter de Westduinen’ in Ouddorp, in the Netherlands in 2016 with one installation piece 'Inner Beauty' becoming a permanent feature on the walls of their restaurant.
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I became artist in residence at Prenton High School during that year too working with high school students on nature projects created from paper.
I showed altered book work in England, New Jersey and Italy during 2017 with the work in New Jersey being featured on a news report with News 12 New Jersey looking at the Book Art: A Novel Idea exhibition at the Morris Museum in Morristown. My work in New Jersey and Italy was on display entering 2018.
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Early in 2018 I was commissioned to produce a spring themed paper installation for the Bluecoat Display Centre Window. I created a spring woodland themed display using recycled books, magazines and newspapers that was shown in the window of the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool and I ran a recycling book workshop with a woodland theme at Cass Arts to accompany it.
During 2018 I showed more altered book work this time in New York at the Centre for Book Arts.
I was also commissioned to create an installation for Bio-Rad which I installed in Toronto, Canada for the International Society of Blood Transfusion Congress.
The installation was made up of thousands of printed blood cells. The work was shipped in four pieces and constructed in situ over a few days.
After the event it was shipped to Switzerland and is now on permanent display in their offices in Cressier.
As Artist in Residence at Prenton High School for Girls I developed and delivered a special project in 2018 which was shown until Spring 2019. 'The Fallen Oak Leaf Project' became a huge community project commemorating the centenary of the end of World War One.
It started as an educational art project for Wirral Primary Schools but I was given the opportunity to deliver it to the local community too with The Wilfred Owen Commemoration through pop up workshops in shops, at The Williamson Art Gallery, in sheltered accommodation and at the YMCA.
The work was displayed at the Williamson Art Gallery until February 2019 when it moved to Birkenhead Central Library for a few months.
I was also approached to developed a poppy worksheet and a workshop video that I produced to go into Primary Schools. I also ran workshops to make the poppies with the community for the Wilfred Owen Commemoration leading up to November 11th when the poppies were installed.
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In December my altered book work was shown in an exhibition from the permanent collection of The WAH Center in New York. I went on to develop a new project at Prenton High School for Girls as their resident artist, this was a recycling project making World Maps which was delivered to Wirral Primary Schools.
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In 2019 I also showed new work in 'Go Eco' at The Bluecoat Display Centre and I ran a workshop at the Bluecoat to accompany the exhibition. The same work was shown in 'Crafted' at The Kirby Gallery in December going into the new year.
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Due to the pandemic exhibitions and workshops ceased in 2020 so I opened an online shop, taking a step back and then sideways!
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In 2021 my work was in a postcard show to raise money for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and set up my shop.
In 2022 I painted a cat for The Owl and the Pussycat Trail in Knowsley and I showed work in 'Out of Paper' in The Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, New York, USA.
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This year I have shown work in 'Worth a Thousand Words' in the Eden Gallery and Crafted in Knowsley. I have started showing work at art and craft fairs and I have also started running workshops again.
