Artist’s Statement
I love my work. I have never made any distinction between making art and gardens. Both are a material interventions, one permanent, the other in need of ongoing tending. I make the worlds I want to see; images and places, with paint or soil, illusiory or real. Wood anemones/primroses and foxgloves are never seen together because they flower at different times of year but I can paint that. One of the fantastic things about being an artist is I can do what I like. Those natural rules don’t apply. When I’m landscaping and gardening the realities of the land shape what can be made and this is wonderful in different ways- all the unexpected outcomes, where a plant self seeds, grows especially well or becomes an important habitat for eg butterflies, and as a gardener I get to put what I like side by side to look amazing and benefit wildlife.
Both processes are very important to me. To collaborate with people and facilitate work with others is also a vital component of my work. I have witnessed the most profound impact of creative processes with many people, giving agency and peace of mind and I have learnt the most unexpected lessons from sharing these experiences.
With a background in Fine Art, specialising in installation, I developed my practice around the realities of my life. From an early age I was involved in direct action and protest for both animal rights and the environmental movement. The defences and performative aspects of this work gave rich scope for creative work, the pressing issues being both motivational and depressing. Following much counteractive activity, which is depleting and where injuries are sustained, I started working in a safer way. I set up an arts company Living Space Arts, and a tree nursery and herb garden, Touchwood Trees, following having my first child. I started to do restorative planting, the creation of educational gardens and public/ community art. I worked in schools and nurseries, hospitals, residential schools, PRUs and museums, making environments for creativity and learning.
Through increasing work with vulnerable people, such as in orphanages abroad and areas of extreme social deprivation in the UK, I started to understand the limitations in my own understanding of the immense power of art, and that I needed to ensure I could keep the participants, my co-workers and myself safe in the face of powerful material. This led me to taking a Masters in Art Psychotherapy where the clinical work confirmed the power of this work to change lives.
I qualified as a HCPC registered Art Psychotherapist in 2013, initially working with adolescents, then with adults in acute care in hospitals and the community. Through art as a conduit I have witnessed beautiful connections between people when it seemed that contact with another was entirely impossible. I practiced this alongside alongside making Public Art, and developing my own practice as this is a vital part of an effective practice.
The clinical work has informed my social/ community practice in many ways; I can address risk and difficult feelings, work safely with self expression and know the limitations of a project.
Since I have been caring for my mother, who has a diagnosis of Alzheimers, I have been unable to commit to clinical work so I have focused on public commissions which have a flexible timeframe and I have started to work with the elderly community, running art and gardening groups.
Whilst working for the NHS I ran a research project; Dementia, Creativity and Identity within a group where caregivers of those with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s were given psycho-educational support whilst I, as an Art Psychotherapist carried out art sessions with the care receiver, resulting in many interesting findings on the nature of the needs of both.
Creativity gives agency, imagery and colour prompts memory, new skills can be learnt and deep connections can be made. The use of textiles was particularly important to this group, prompting feelings about clothes and identity.
It seems that the ambivalence felt by the carer requires much greater examination, be it motherhood with all its idealisations as well as other care roles, and the dialectics of house/ home making, potentially seen as drudgery or one of life’s wonderful rituals, where giving and receiving is a sacred transaction.
I am fascinated by the cultural and political aspects of care in this society. The common alternative to familial care is to outsource to professionals and institutions which are now mostly in private hands. This raises questions of emotional holding for the vulnerable and is reminiscent of the sanatoriums of the past where individuals were kept out of sight. Though this may minimise disruption to the working family, it raises questions about our ability as a society to value old age, and face our own mortality.
The care of the elderly in the post- industrial society seems to have learned little from the attachment theories that have transformed therapeutic approaches and childcare.
We shape the world we live in with all our decisions. I endeavour to work with individuals as a from of micro politics, with the organisations that support and advocate, and together with artists with conscience, create Public Art that represents the individual and the handcrafted in public space, with the aim of humanising that space. With the increasing encroachment of advertising, and use of corporate and hostile architecture, it is more important than ever that we claim space wherever possible, though street art, community gardens and public art.
Current commissions- public, social and therapeutic
Sussex Garden School Art for Gardens
Youth Justice Service, Ealing Arts Awards and production of Public Art
City North Public Art. The Elms Ceramic mural, with Carrie Reichardt, for Finsbury Park Station.
Harvard Hill Park Sculptures and paintings with ATM Street Art and National Park City
Vogeltreppe, Germany. International public art mosaic commission
Gunnersbury Park and Museum The creation of a nature reserve with educational features. Insect and mammal house made with Capel Manor college students.
Chelsea Flower Show Design and creation of a therapeutic garden with and for veterans.
Elder Flower Arts Art groups for the elderly in support of people with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
Selection; Public Art, Garden Commissions, Street works, shows, Psychotherapy
Green Refuge Artworks and planting to increase social and bio diversity. Working with Kew Gardens, Cultivate London and London National Park City
Hope Gardens.
Saatchi Gallery Group Show, London
Chthonic Commons Solo Exhibition, Stillpoint Spaces, London.
Nuart, Aberdeen, street and mosaic works.
Brighton Festival 2019, At the Coach House, Herbal Gardens Brighton, ‘The Art of Recycling’
Tree of Life An ecological and social history ceramic mural. Acton Gardens Public Art Commission, including mentoring and public consultation
Summer Arts College, Youth Justice Service, Ealing Public Art. Arts Awards. 2016 &17
Treatment Rooms Collective. Mosaic house with International community of mosaicists
Learning for a Sustainable Life Frith Wood. An arts/ environmental programme including the creation of an Iron Age Round House to facilitate forestry and education.
Kent Garden Chronicles, a rural heritage project; the arts and ancient crafts to integrate history and contemporary farming.
Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Devon. Creation of mosaic table and seating to celebrate the artist and her legacy using ceramic transfers of material from the archive.
Human Nature, Bristol and London Group exhibitions exploring the relationships between people and the natural world; gardens and mosaics.
Cambian Churchill Psychiatric Hospital. Artworks, garden creation, with inpatients in acute care.
Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World. Soil Culture artist’s residency,
UN International Year of Soils. Seale Hayne with touring show to Kew, The Eden Project etc
ATIC, Sussex Partnership NHS Trust. Art Therapy in the Community at Phoenix Arts. A psychotherapy group for people leaving acute care
Extinction. Human Nature London Mosaic of the extinction symbol. Tower Hamlets
Green Prospects. Brent Lodge Animal Centre. Sculpture, seating and shelter 2015
The Treatment Rooms. Mosaic taxi to raise awareness of the American Justice system.
Cranstoun Recovery Centre, London Creation of permanent artwork for the centre, with residents using mosaic making, and poetry and text work. 2015
Genesis Project, Leeds. Permanent artwork to celebrate the establishment of this organisation, which provides support, advocacy and information to sex workers. 2014
Acton Heritage Project. ‘Home’ Mosaic sofa, exploring changes in housing and immigration.
Oasis Brighton Art workshops with works with children affected by substance misuse
Tomorrow Today Cobb tutor for ‘Somewhere’ with Cambridge University Archaeological Dept.
Dove Ward- Sussex Partnership NHS substance misuse. Arts into Health. 2014
Disobedient Objects The Treatment Rooms Collective. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Creation of mosaics for the entrance to the museum. 2014 Late nights: Making Trouble and Influencing People. Workshops to create posters.
Millview Hospital, Sussex Partnership NHS Trust. Art Psyschotherapy Co-running Psychotherapy groups within an acute in-patient setting on a secure women’s ward.
Sussex Partnership NHS Trust Research project ‘Dementia, Identity and Creativity’ 2013-14
The Treatment Rooms. Creation of artworks for ‘Utopia’ show in support of Shelter and Single Homeless Project. 2014
Riot Here, Riot Now, W3 Gallery Acton 2014
ArtexparteII, Berazategui, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina Public Art 2013
Whitecross Street, London. Public Art, ceramic works 2013
Bradstow Special School, Kent. Earth ovens and a Roman kiln for community events.
Cogges Agricultural Museum, Oxfordshire Learning@Cogges Farm with Creative Junction, ‘Philosophy 4 Children’ for schools, general public and ‘What’s Outside?’
Weir Community Art Garden, London. The design and creation of a community garden for food growing and social space within an estate 2012-13
Ashley C of E Primary School. ‘Enquiry School’ project, Surrey. A whole- school, food growing project. Ending with a Feast of earth oven pizzas and salads. 2011
Chalgrove Community School, Oxford. A Change School Project. Landscaping and artworks with P4C and the local community to establish a nature reserve.
NEC Birmingham, International Year of Biodiversity: Gardeners World garden. ‘Shaping Our Spaces’ Solihull Borough Council, 3yr residency. A major initiative to address public perception of green spaces and woodlands.
‘Moveable Feast’ The Mayor’s Thames Festival 2006-11 Feast on the Bridge, Harvest celebration. Community container garden creation in public spaces
Bolnore Village, East Sussex Large scale Public Art for Central Square
Orleans House Gallery, London ‘Transformation’ permanent garden sculpture for Orleans House Gallery, with residents of Spear Homeless Hostel 2010
Potter’s Fields Park- City Hall, London Raised beds in a public park.
Learning for Life. Environmental Education, Stanmer Park Brighton
Renegade Potters, Inkd Gallery, Brighton. Ceramics work 2010
Team London Bridge, London Planter troughs and garden at Fair St, More London
Moulscoombe Heritage and Environment festival 7m Totem Pole 2011 & 18
Tarner Park, Brighton and Hove. Inner city park commission to create mosaics in consultation with Brighton Unemployed Centre and Youth Club and Carden School
St Charles School, London External mosaic on 50m wall, made with St Charles School pupils and psychiatric patients from adjoining hospital, Ladbroke Grove 2009
Freda Gardham School Creative Partnerships: ‘The Field’ Art in the Environment 2008
Victoria and Albert Museum, London Garden sculptures for Arabic Weekend to celebrate the opening of the Jameel Islamic Art Gallery 2006
Heritage and Environment festival, Brighton 7m Totem Pole, Moulsecombe, Brighton