Printmaking and Mixed Media
My studio is my place to hide and re-set., my sieve-space of survival, where all the noise and the chat can be refracted or rejected.
Here I can pick jewels from chaos, and pause to sense with clarity where beauty lies in all that loud dreary funk, and quietly digest, regard, tease out and transform beautiful truth.
A typical day begins with my priority firmly in place: maintaining a functioning standard of health and well-being necessary to look after my beloved family. If energy or time remain, creativity and contemplation ensue. I may be lucky enough to indulge in the nutritious business of making; that could be designing/transferring/cutting/proofing or printing a block, or I may spend time in productive meditation, steadily producing a mandala. Occasionally I am able to venture out into nature, to drink in the freely available splendour of landscape, and/or ancient creations and sign-posts. Most importantly, every day I endeavour to allow and arrange as much time as possible to be still, to be idle, to be quiet, to be even. What inspires me? Natural spaces, forms, shapes and repeats. Archetypes and symbols. That which I encounter during glimpses of peace… moments of brain-gap nothingness. Generosity and selflessness. My studio is a place where I can more easily recognise my authentic self. A place of messy beauty, untamed trying and un-self-conscious glee, where my own inherent ability to heal and survive is honoured and protected.
With thanks to Lynette Thomas for images and compiling artist statements.
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