Intro


Much of my current work is autobiographical, dealing with issues of familial and emotional abuse, personal identity and the fragility of ego. I am currently working on a series of purses and boxes based on objects discovered in my mother's house after her death.

This image is the inside of an embroidered purse entitled 'Come and Tell Your Mother You Love Her'.

Generally speaking, my work focuses on the tension between traditional female archetypes of folklore and fairytale, and ideas of femininity and feminism in contemporary society. 

I work in mixed media with an emphasis on textiles, using machine and hand embroidery to embellish appliqued, patchworked or quilted pieces. 

The blog is written to give a little context around each of my pieces of work. 

Having 'bottled it' on the first day of Art College nearly three decades ago I have recently returned to finding and developing my voice in visual art by joining a post-grad art course locally at Artpocket studio. 



Location: England, UK

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Come And Tell Your Mother You Love Her

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The embroidery on the inside of this purse represents the internal monologue my mother gave me through the words she spoke repeatedly for decades. On the outside are words my father said- barely visible, but indelible in impact.  The purse is representative of many we found tucked away in my mother's bedroom when we cleared her house after her death.  Initially we cleared a light debris of scattered rice pudding tins and all the prescription meds she hadn't been taking. Then we moved on to the contents of her cupboards. Centre stage was her chest of drawers, tacky with badly applied paint effects and tea-stains. In the top drawer we discovered a range of bedraggled little drawstring bags in different sizes and colours. Opening each one revealed a further small and tatty gift box or purse, and inside each of those, a further grubby trinket box or tiny organza bag- the sort cheap jewellery usually comes in- and then within that, a selection of odd items; maybe a broken earring c...
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The EFF OFF Shopping List

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  This piece is quite simply an attempt to capture the contrast between the usual 'dear little old lady' archetype we are all fed, and the nature of my mother. The twee coin purse bearing a cute kitten, the lavender lace and the typical elderly shopping list of rice pudding and custard all belie the last item on the list: an instruction to FUCK OFF.  After my mother's death, a shopping list much like this was found in her kitchen, the unremarkable food items written on a scrap of notepaper in blue biro. The list had a surprising last item of shopping, an expletive written in red capitals. I don't know who -if anyone- the list was for.  The 'tongue' unfurls from the purse, ready to lash out at the unsuspecting shopper.  ******************************** Hand embroidered lilac-grey lace emerging from a charity-shop purse. 
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