I am a geographer, printmaker, emerging artist, and writer. I maintain a strong focus on the places and spaces where we pause to connect with our environment, and our journeys through it, both physical and metaphorical. Following a deliberate escape from a corporate university career I now use art to provoke questions and conversation.

Relief printmaking was my initial artform of choice, but I am experimenting with film, sculpture, Craft and hybrid techniques. Largely self-taught, my practice spans the borderlands, much of it inspired by journeys. I am interested in interpreting peripheral areas, boundaries, places where processes and people intersect. Born and brought up in Scotland, I work mainly in Cumbria and Galloway, and I believe it is important for rural contemporary artists to challenge our urbancentric, hierarchical art world.

A member of the PLACE Collective – artists and researchers interested in meaningful environmental change – I have recently worked on projects with Northern Print, Curatorspace, Somewhere-nowhere, Tullie House, the Catstrand, Natural England and the University of Cumbria. In addition to my own creative practice I am Director of Florence Arts Centre (part-time), a hub for contemporary arts in west Cumbria.

Visiting Cove Park will give me the time and space to research and develop one or two projects I have been ruminating on for a while. I also want to see where the links and threads lie that tie these themes together, telling coherent stories. One is a project using visual art to provoke questions from nuclear stakeholders, encouraging mutual understanding and effective communication. This has taken on a new urgency as we bear witness to events in Ukraine. My previous career was in the research sector, connected to Sellafield, supporting nuclear decommissioning. Another is Bibliotreks, an abstract, sculptural bookbinding project using found and waste materials to take the audience on unexpected journeys. A third is Trashmotifs, an experimental screen print project elevating single use items, granting them a new status, beauty and value.