I am a maker
Through making I connect with the world and our community.
Engaging with naturally occurring clay soils, my work is a combination of making in my studio and out of doors, surrounded by nature.
Hand-making with foraged clay, I create artefacts that record my interventions with the landscape, alongside making photographs, film, and delivering community workshops.
I have been working with foraged clay soils since 2008, building wood-fired cob pizza ovens in primary schools throughout the UK. To date I have engaged over 13,000 children with clay soil. Also, since 1990 I have worked as a freelance graphic designer. I bring these skills together forming my current ‘art of enquiry’.
In 2022 I attained a Masters degree with distinction in Contemporary Craft, at Hereford College of Art. Here I developed my ‘we are here’ project.
The foundations of my practice are underpinned by three inter-woven themes;A sense of personal Well-Being
Achieving well-being through Making
Achieving well-being through Sharing making
we are here
Revealing the beauty of the soils that form, nurture and sustain us, my we are here project allows me to embed narratives at every stage. Choices of place, material, index, form, finish and firing create layers of meaning.
The resulting artefacts become snapshots, recording my intervention in place and time. Sometimes pieces remain unfired, and the raw clay is returned to where it came from. I simply 'borrow' our soil, taking away photographs and videos.
My Masters research led to a profound shift of my approach to material engagement, where upon entering the 'flow' of matter, forms appear. My work removed preconcieved boundaries between human and landscape, revealing an interconnectedness of all matter, be that our hands or our soil.The mantras behind We are Here:
We are Present and in the Moment.
Essentially, mindfulness. Aware of ourselves, and our surroundings. Aware of the eternal now, ultimately improving subjective well-being.
We are Making
We are Here, evidenced by our artefacts. We are aware of how our interventions may - or may not be - a part of the natural, universal flow, and therefore become aware of humanity’s impact on the natural world.
We are Sharing
We are Here, making together. We are creating moments, connecting and sharing with each other.
brief resumé
2001: Graduated at Hereford Collage of Art, with distinction in Graphic Design.
From 2008 - present: Working in primary schools across the UK, building cob ovens.
From 2011 - present: Delivering oven workshops in Herefordshire.
2014 & 2015: Community cob oven building at Green Man Festival, Crickhowell.
2017: Out of Nature sculpture exhibition, Newport House. Installation of my Clun River Pearl Mussel sculpture.
2020: Moved into new studio, an old village school room.
2022: Masters Degree with distinction in Contemporary Craft at HCA.
2022: We Are Here @ Ferrous festival, Hereford.
2022: Portal @ Llantarnam Grange, Cwmbran.
Also we Are here pop-up workshops at schools, Mortimer Forest, Spring Greens Festival, Herefordshire, the Sidney Nolan Trust, National Trust Brockhampton Estate, Acton Scott working farm museum, and the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre.
