MA Show August 2023

During my Masters in Falmouth, Cornwall, I worked to capture and condense the writing, feelings, and seasons of the past seven years in visual form.

I created a series of ‘spontaneous drawings’ in the mediums of print and pencil.

The process behind the drawings was, as the word ‘spontaneous’ suggests- unplanned, hyper-focused, and in flow. By working quickly yet mindfully, I was able to sketch my ideas as soon as they arrived - which also speaks to the ‘present moment’ captured in the poems.

The words complement the visuals and vice versa - but are equally as suggestive and free on their own. Coming into this course, with a background in literature, the words will always hold the most weight for me.

But I learned to distill these moments into visual forms. And what I found was that I began to draw certain objects again and again, such as love hearts and feet. I started to link word and image in a curious sort of way, and restructuring them freely.

I also experimented a lot with natural materials, particularly grass, in response to the changing landscape. The weaves and botanical paintings preserve the beauty of the moment.

There are over 300 poems in the Meanderings collection. Each one documents of a certain soul season. Handmade books using recycled paper and tied with jute.

CATALOGUE ENTRY FOR MA SHOW

Art, for me, is like breath - rootless, fruitless, fumbling, and finding.

It sits in a pause somewhere - soft and strange.

It opens onto oceans - reflecting the reader and remaking itself in tears and puddles.

It is the sigh of the earth as it beats in me, and the light that lives on, blindly, no matter what the weather.

It filters through me in whisper, cracks in the pavement and midnight ramblings.

My art lives in the moment. It catches and cares for my emotions. It is the cushion.

I write to release -

to peel back some of the layers.

I make art to try and make sense of the experience I find myself wrapped in -

to come back to my senses, I guess.

My art is an ever moving meditation.. like the elusive rainbow that wanders away from me.