I am an experimental artist living in Shrewsbury. I studied at Nottingham Trent University and have a first-class hons degree in Creative Arts. I work with paint, ink, collage, print, crayons, chalk, pastels and I also create stencils and sometimes stage puppet shows. I am an ex-foster carer and currently support adults with learning difficulties p/t. I also perform my own histrionic poetry and make occasional videos.
I will be assisted during this year’s open studio (in August) by a young person known as Mrs Pickle. She is also an artist, and we often work on art together when she visits Shrewsbury in school holidays. Some of my art has a relationship with political, philosophical and social topics and some is purely driven by aesthetics. I believe everyone is creative but that not everyone has yet found a way or an opportunity to access their creative drive. I am happy to sell art but often rail against everything, including art (and even foster children) being turned into a commodity. I believe creative arts are one of our best defences against social isolation, political oppression and the tyranny of unfettered technology. All creative arts have the same social and commercial value as any other subject or human enterprise. Indeed, creative art is often the neglected medium through which many neurodiverse young people might otherwise access more appropriately differentiated education and learning in a wide range of conventional school subjects.
I believe education policy, prejudice against the arts in education, the commercialisation of education and the unfettered access of developing minds to exploitative technology all contribute to the mental health crisis amongst younger people. I seek to address these issues in the way I conduct my art. Creative art is a key pillar in building vibrant, safe and cooperative communities.
