My story so far!

I create work that is shaped by my love of literature and travel and the people from different cultures that I have met along the way.  

When I hear anybody with an accent different to mine, I'm intrigued.   Where are they from and what makes them tick?   What are the languages, songs, literature and traditional cuisines that shape their lives?  What rituals, beliefs, mythologies and world views tie their culture together?  Finding out these things shakes up my own beliefs and assumptions that I have of the world and alters my perspective.

Culture is a shared sense of belonging and understanding of how to live in the physical world around us. It helps explain the unexplainable, and creates collective knowledge and wisdom.   On the surface it looks like we are vastly different but underneath there is a realisation that we are all very similar - every human has a way of life or system of belief that makes them feel connected to a greater whole. 

When you buy a piece of my art and bring it home, you are honouring people from all over the world and choosing to connect with them - and connection is the foundation of what makes us human. 

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I come from a family of artisans - with a grandmother who was a supreme weaver and  a mum whose talents spanned woodwork, leather work, drawing, knitting, puppet making and fine art painting.  My Dad was good at writing and interested in history, geography, politics, reading and also making things.  This is the basis of why I work in 3D.  

My first job (way back in the mid eighties!) was in Medical Laboratory Technology. I loved science - especially biology - and a long time before the industry was mechanised, I worked in the Haematology and Cytology departments with test tubes, petri dishes, glass slides and pipettes - measuring and mixing liquids and chemicals, and spending a lot of time looking down a microscope.  

During the next few decades I did a three year OE, and then went to university to study English Literature, Linguistics and Anthropology.  During this time I arrived at the door of a mosaic workshop which then led to a mosaic conference in Hobart, Tasmania. It was here that I heard a presentation by a sculptor of life sized birds - some with a wing span of 5 metres in length - and each wing was decorated with kilnformed glass feathers!  This seemed like magic and the scientific aspect of glass tweaked my dormant laboratory background!

I was fascinated and hooked - and after fourteen years my fascination has not ended.

I love colour and usually work across a warm colour palette. I have a soft spot for orange - which just happens to be the colour of friendship!

I love my job!      And I am passionate about what I do!