About my art

I paint to celebrate the wonder I feel at the beauty of life - nature, stories, love, and the tenacious inner strength of all those living. All these things played a part in pulling me back into joy after a life-threatening illness and the months of isolating and debilitating treatment that was required to fight it. 

Coming out the other side, I felt like I’d had my eyes opened to the utter glory of what we consider ordinary. Sunlight, birds, wind on my face, taking the children to school, a cup of tea in the garden, stories to get lost in, all these things took on a kind of magic because I’d been allowed to experience them again.

I also became acutely aware of the chaos and transience of life, which oddly made the little things all the more beautiful.

As part of processing all this, I was drawn to the age-old stories that are told to make sense of life and the powerful natural world around us – the myths, fables, folklore and symbolism that are woven into our collective understanding of the world and our place in it.

In my work I re-claim or re-write these ancient stories, depending on my feelings around them. Or I use their age-old symbolism to weave brand new stories. I’m particularly interested in creating narratives that re-balance power and re-claim joy: an antidote to fear and loathing and a call to freedom and wonder.