I have a love of pattern, experimental mark making, repetition and colour. My working process is quite eclectic but often begins with a colour palette and experimental mark making and various printing and painting techniques. I often work on found surfaces and ephemera such as used envelopes and pages from discarded books destined to be shredded. These provide unique surfaces to paint and print on and the use of collage yields unexpected results.
I like repurposing old books and any paper ephemera I can find. These often get covered, but tiny fragments can be exposed to reveal a sense of history and discovery. I always paint or draw on my collage papers. I like how a brushstroke lands on a torn fragment of an old book page. I may cut out a diagram from a vintage manual. These elements are all unexpected, spontaneous and not predetermined, so the painting ends up being playful and intuitive. Sometimes I enjoy reorganising them in a more structured composition or layout.
Collage gives me unexpected opportunities to create relationships between marks, surfaces and shapes that do not necessarily belong together.
My previous printed textile design practice taught me to be very creative, versatile and adapt to seasons, fashion and genre. I produced hand drawn print collections for fashion and interior, wrap and cards and wallpapers. I now enjoy a greater sense of freedom and experimentation but its has nudged me to delve more deeply in to what I really want to investigate in my art practice.
