BA (hons) in Fine-Art Tapestry, Edinburgh College of Art
MFA in fine-Art Tapestry, Edinburgh College of Art

I am a Scottish-Australian interdisciplinary artist and arts facilitator. Through the mediums of photography, performance, installation and drawing I create and and produce visual stories and performances. I work as an individual solo artist and collaboratively as an arts and performance workshop leader and facilitator for adults with intellectual disabilities.

I live and work in the city of Edinburgh in Scotland where Edinburgh Castle and the spires of historic medieval beauty intersect with the neon-smoke of nightclubs and the dark romance of the closes. Arthurs Seat, a dramatically visual rock formation rises up to join the city skyline and from its green-gold, stony landscape I draw a lot of creative energy and inspiration. Land or City-scapes weave in and out of my work. I grew up firstly in the suburbs of Canberra, Australia with much time spent outside the city in the country, at lakes and at the coast. Later my family moved to a community located on a deep green edge of Aberdeen-shire in Scotland. These two places with their physical differences remain always central in my inner visual as well as emotional landscape. I moved to Edinburgh to study Art in 1996 and have an BA (hons) and an MFA from Edinburgh College of Art.

My own work often begins intuitively and emotionally and I follow these starting points - perhaps a strong visual, a deep feeling or a particular memory. My practice weaves together experiences of sexual trauma, chronic illness and slow intentional healing alongside imagination and different spaces or locations that I am drawn to aesthetically and energetically. I attempt to connect my own experiences with a collective or universal relationship to these themes. I am interested in the feminine aspect in all of us and in particular how this impacts and shapes my own inner and outer identity. I have a curiousity about the parts of ourselves that exist in the shadows, between the spaces, the stories we don’t tell or share - the hidden or potentially ‘darker’ aspects of our experiences as human beings.

I have worked with adults with intellectual disabilities for 20 years facilitating individuals and groups to express themselves creatively through art, craft and performance. I am currently employed in the role of Puppetry Workshop Leader at Garvald Edinburgh, a community organisation that supports adults with intellectual disabilities to reach their full creative potential. As part of this role I facilitate the co-creation of Puppetry and expressive arts performances.

In all aspects of my practice there is a focus on process, creative play, experiment, exploration to find a connection from which to devise finished work.

My intention is to open up, share and initiate further dialogue, communication and connections.