WHAT

IS

POSSIBLE?

This project looks to explore & develop ways to combine abstraction with figuration through drawing and painting, build knowledge around digital art practices, connect with local practitioners, address gaps in my knowledge and build confidence so that skills can be shared with young people.

Falling roughly into 2 strands; Analogue & Digital

Analogue

  • Attending drawing and painting classes with an eye on figuration to build understanding, skill and confidence to expand my personal art practice, as well as providing more informed and in-depth learning experiences for the young people I work with.

  • Studio time & material exploration to explore the possibilities of bringing drand and/or painted elements of figuration to the predominantly abstract artwork I make.

  • Sharing through in-person crits with peers and workshops with young people.

Digital

  • Time sharing the digital side of my practice with John Whall of Level Centre, Derby to explore the possibilities of contemporary digital art practice and ways to exhibit/ share artwork beyond online exhibitions.

  • Time to delve into my digital archive, make new digital artwork, and consider whether a digital art practice feels rewarding and like a more sustainable, less materially dependent way to continue having an art practice.

The Body

As a site of politics, identity, deep knowledge and transformation, is a key concern within my art practice and after several years of expressing this through abstraction, I want to try and introduce the body representationally within my work.

This shift comes from reconciling some of the tension I felt early on in my practice, around the constraints placed upon marginalised bodies by societal conventions and systems and, rather than resisting their categorising gaze through the escape that abstraction offers, I want to try and reclaim the body / my body (as much as I can) by embracing representation and creating a new language that feels liberatory rather than confining.

In order to do so, I need dedicated time to learn key technical skills through attending classes focused around rendering the body- specifically anatomy/ portraiture to build confidence and understanding. Once the courses are complete, I’ll spend time in. the studio to experiment and find a way I like to draw and include the figure in y work both digitally and physically so that I can, not only expand my practice, but also offer ways to do so for young people to do the same.

Music, Sound & Somatic Healing

In my practice

Having been aware and curious about sound and gong baths for decades, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually experienced one first-hand. At the time, I had been wondering about the link between my making process and the music I listen to in the studio, the motifs and shapes that came up in my artwork and whether there was a direct connection- how they feed into one another. I’ve known music/sound is integral to my process, but a question around whether it directs the kinds of work I make was unresolved. I was curious to know.

The answers to these wonderings made themselves evident during my first Gong bath. It was a profound experience where I saw lots of shapes and colours, and the deep visceral response in my body had a massive impact on me. Given that my work is centred on the body and the visceral experience that healing sound has on the body, there was a wonderful drawing together of the different facets and interests of my art practice. But I also had loads more questions and a desire to know more about the how of it, so I decided to learn.

That learning journey expanded, and having experienced and felt the profound physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of Healing Sound first hand, I became a certified practitioner, which in turn impacted the workshops and facilitation work I do, providing an embodied, grounded and therapeutic, trauma-informed approach to working with (young) people.

I began studying in 2020 and completed my practitioner diploma in 2023. A lot has happened in a short space of time.

Though this practice is primarily about offering deep rest and healing to others, it has also instigated a creative outlet and enabled collaborations with: writer Josephine Hall, to create a meditative spoken word soundscape; music producer, Tom Morris forming experimental music duo, PAL, to create an album titled Leisure Forever (2023) ad leading to being commissioned by Cement Fields to co-create a Soundscape with students at Northfleet Technology Collage (2024/2025). I was also invited to contribute to musical performance artist Ziah Ziah’s immersive artwork, titled Big Mars Energy at Quench Gallery (2024).