My early years…..

Since my childhood, I have always drawn. Born in the January of 1960, I come from a working class family of six, and from humble beginnings, but there was always joy and encouragement from my parents to enjoy whatever I undertook. I am a twin to my brother and in our younger years we had many adventures. The wonder of nature was important to me as a child and still is in my adult life, and I have memories of nurturing birds with broken wings, and so birds feature throughout my paintings as a symbol of freedom.

Soul searching…..

Art, for me, is like poetry. You wake up thinking and feeling positive and loving life. Soul searching for my passion through art, means that I can share with others but also to understand myself. My work will hopefully show this. I have worked most of my life through caring for others as a nurse. But nursing wasn’t enough, there was something missing in me, which was art. Although I enjoyed nursing, art was my salvation. I could be myself and feel free from the mundane reality of life and find myself enjoying the inspirational side of me which has made me who I am today.

Motherhood…..

Having been a single mother, and I thank god for my beautiful daughter, money wasn’t flowing however I was grateful for my work as a nurse on night shifts to support my daughter. In my daughter’s infancy, my mother was a huge support to me in caring for my daughter while I worked to support us financially. I was also lucky to have my true friends and together we shared in the creative passions we all had. This led me to achieve my BA(Hons) in Art, Design and Media in 2001 and, having since married in the April of 2004, my husband lovingly sacrificed my second income in supporting me to achieve my Masters degree in Art, Design and Media in 2007.

Life changes…….

For a while, life’s commitments meant that I needed to put my creativity through art on hold. However through COVID-19, I was a key worker and it was at this moment my life changed through the events around me bringing me back to painting. Like many others, the pandemic motivated me to follow my heart and so I began 3D painting again and have not looked back. Through this time my art has grown and developed at pace and brought me to where I am today.

My inspiration…

Painting is my joy, my chosen discipline. Why? I enjoy the freedom and spontaneity it gives me, it is accessible to me and, in living through art, this is important. It gives me a spiritual energy and fulfilment. I take my inspiration from my own life experiences and from the life I see around me, but also from what I feel around me. My spiritual life is a huge influence in my work, my connection with spirit and the universe, my belief that we are not alone in this universe, that in many places there is life and intelligence far more advanced than ours. Now this does not mean that I don’t believe in god, I believe in the presence of all things, seen and unseen. Nature too has an impact in my work, and I consider this to be all as one with my spiritual influence.

The here and now…..

So what now? You’ll understand from all of the above that its taken a lot of time, many struggles, but also a lot of joy to get to this point in my life as an artist. I don’t paint every single day, maybe not every week, but I paint when it feels good to do so. In my opinion, although money is a great motivator, it’s far from being my “why”, my reason for painting. Maybe in the early days I was like most students, hoping for a moon-shot to success, and some of my peers likely found it, but its not the only way or the only route to whatever success looks like for us as artist and creators. My wish for you, friend, is that firstly you can find something that brings you joy (unless you’re one of the lucky few already living your dream, in which case congratulations and well done!) and secondly, that you can find a way to cherish that thing, in whatever way works best for you, and be supported by those around you in that endeavour. This is a life of growth through strength into whom we end up wanting to be in life how ever that me be, our Yin and Yang.