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You Where Here (2024)
This series of paintings was done over a period of a few months in 2024, through my own reflections of loss and grief. Some began as drawings and paintings within a sketchbook, before painting on to canvas using acrylic paints and mixed media. Exploring canvas being primed and not primed, as I wonder about how we prepare for or manage loss. The last image is of a tattoo I got as a final piece of this work.
Mixed Media Art
Below are mixed media art pieces, as I studied in fine art and contemporary art I find that I enjoy using many different types of mediums when creating my art. Click on each image to find out more about them.
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Life Drawings
These Life drawings were produced from 2010 until the present day. I am very interested in the body and how we can express how we see it through art. I find that there is so much to be studied and reflected on when looking at portraits. They can tell many stories and reveal so much in someone. Pastels, paint, pen, pencil, and printing was used to create these.
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Containing the Uncontained Mess (2017)
Below are mixed media sculptures using clay, paint, wire, plastic, wool and thread. All created in 2016 they are a response to client work and the struggles they have. As a therapist I was holding and containing this mess for them, which was important in their process of recovery.
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Mapping Ourselves (2013)
Researching artists such as Picasso, Tracy Emin, and Sally Mann - an American photographer best known for her black and white photographs of children. When looking at one of her works of art, 'Reserves: The Purim Holiday' (1969), I was very interested in how her photographs were used not in trying to find their identities but to show the fate and evoke the tragedy of their deaths.
Photographs can bring back memories for people, and I wanted to look at what can trigger memories either in photographs, but also through our other senses. So I created a questionnaire which I handed out to people asking about memories, and used these to create the images you can see below, as they were printed and stitched onto the material. They were then wrapped in bubble wrap, thinking of how delicate these memories are, and were hung up on the string to float.
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Mugshot Prints (2014)
These were Monoprints and one Screenprint of Mugshots that were taken in the 1920's America. However, was only found and recovered in the 1990s. I find these amazingly artistic and intriguing images that I wanted to try to capture using the printing technique, looking at their facial expressions, clothing and the uniqueness of there characters. The last image was a block print of a female convicted of bigamy and theft. This was taken at the turn of the 20th century in New South Wales, Australia.
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Unlocking the Self (2016)
Schizophrenia affects 1 in 10 people. Due to disturbances in the cortical pathways throughout the nucleus accumbens, symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations may occur. This may also heighten the sensation of memory, past experiences, and has the ability to contain these to permit one to explore each in time.
These two pieces of work explore the areas of mental health and the stigmas that can be attached to it. After having the experience of working with people who suffer from mental health as a carer and as an art psychotherapist, I have experienced first-hand that there can be positives to these illnesses. Working as an art psychotherapist with people who have schizophrenia, I have helped them open up the many parts of their mind that may have been hidden and by doing so, being able to explore these in detail within a safe and containing space. Learning at times that all these pieces may be connected in some way and overall are a part of who they are, even if it is parts they don’t like. Art psychotherapy gives them space and time to work on these issues in an expressive form.
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The Gaze (2014)
This installation was a variety of sound and visual elements creating a walkway along a somewhat eerie path in a pursuer's or stalkers' mind. I wanted to make the audience feel uncomfortable and awkward, but also intrigued, having a feeling of empowerment by the way that they could view others without being noticed through the two-way mirror. The sounds of camera shutters also helped create this unnerving feeling that the audience has become the gazer.
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Mapping in Clay (October 2024)
As part of a group workshop I created pieces using a texture clay and photography, with found objects and using the surrounding of nature to either incorporate or inspire the piece I made. The clay piece I used leaf and bark prints, creating mushrooms and then lines throughout the piece thinking of connection. Wondering about connections to the earth, others and nature.
