Poems & Prayers in the lead up to my exhibition Pieces of Self. I feel deflated un-known, un-knowing my enthusiasm constantly dripping away I feel tired from pushing up against the bold brick wall that surrounds me I feel lost, uncertain why the steps I thought were forward are now behind, heading in the wrong direction I feel un-lit, the fire inside barely smoking I feel disappointed, defeated uncertain, unsure I ask these feelings be moved outside of myself. I ask they be r

Poems & Prayers in the lead up to my exhibition Pieces of Self. Night time pondering: how do I still an un-naturally frantic mind? a mind that doesn’t want to sleep? how do I learn again to teach it to be quiet? (why must I learn again?) why does it act as though there is no tomorrow and all its thoughts must be expelled right now? acted upon, dealt with, thought about, right now? is this normal stress amplified? abnormal stress pressurised? #artspirituality #artandfaith #art

Poems & Prayers by one who struggles with words in the lead up to my exhibition Pieces of Self. Please help me see Your presence & the beauty in decay weakness imperfection in the falling down in the random collection in texture in roughness in change in transition the loose ends the untied knots the run-offs the converging streams.. or seams the dry pools the mistakes and accidents in tangles in mismatched items in holes in incomplete wholeness in the fading in ageing the be

It's been a little while since I last posted despite my desire to be a bit more regular. However I have been working on a few different sorts of things, including a series about my own experience of art and ill-health. Rather than just write something up, I thought I'd make them into short videos because images are always much more interesting! They quality could be better - but this is what I'm able to do myself, at home, with my knowledge (lack there of?) of computer type s

This was an article I wrote in 2011 for Equip and given that I am re-entering a space where faith, art and health collide again, I thought it might be appropriate to reflect on again. (Re) Discovering Art within Faith How illness created the space to find a spiritual connection with creativity Over the past five years my life has gone through quite an upheaval. The year after completing a demanding (physically, mentally, emotionally) theatre degree my husband and I returned t

This document is for those who have fibromyalgia and for those who have friends who do. It is a bit of an unusual document but I put it together out of my own experience of struggling to adequately explain my condition to friends and therefore the difficulty of asking for help, something that has affected both my husband and I as I have been unwell and has he has had to live with me being unwell. When you an ongoing illness the greatest thing you can have is a supportive circ

Letter to my friends ‘The Well’ (those who are without chronic illness) from us, ‘The Presently Un-Well’ (those who have a chronic illness) To my friends ‘The Well’ I say this; we ‘The Presently Un-Well’ need you. We need you as friends, family, lovers, carers, comforters, suppliers of food, of things, of transportation

It was probably about 2 years ago now that I was having great difficulty sleeping. This has been a perennial problem for me and is part of having fibromyalgia. But at this time I had thought I was doing quite well health wise, until I began not sleeping again. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t sleep at all, but that it would take me hours to fall asleep and then it was light and short. I knew I had to start sleeping and fast – I was a teacher and doing anything is difficult on a cont

This is the first blog I have ever done. It’s a big step for me because a couple of years ago I could not bear to contribute anything to the internet for fear of how others might take it. I had massive social anxiety. Facebook was purely to receive invitations. I still don’t post particularly personal things on facebook, but now, five years after signing up for an Etsy shop, I have finally convinced myself to start selling through it. It was three years ago I got a job that I