‘Birth Songs’

Shown at Rich Mix, London as part of a group exhibition organised by Amnesty London, January 2014. The exhibition focussed on maternal, HIV and LGBT rights.

This painting is made entirely through the act of writing. Lyrics have been taken from songs playing just before and just after the birth of my daughter at 8.25pm on 11 May 2013, layering up over one another to form the landscape of the painting.

The ipod was on shuffle; these were the songs that happened to be playing at the time. On painting the words, I remind myself of both the sense of hope and of anticipation on the imminent arrival of my newborn. And how what a universal experience to humanity this is, across time and place.

I am very thankful for the health of my baby and myself following her birth. Every year there are 3 million mothers who will see their babies die in the first month of their life. And every year 1/2 million babies won’t get to meet their mothers when they are born.

I know you by heart / Night bird / You are the everything / Sweet Lullaby / Until the end of the world / Keep on trying / Let it go / I love you, I love you, like never before / Hymn to her / Breathe a little deeper / Deep forest / Into my arms / Meadowlark / Hallelujah / the songbird keeps singing / Will you be there in the end?

Archbishop’s Park Summer Festival, 2012

This work is a painting of Archbishop’s Park using words.

To create a community made piece for use in the planned new Rainbird Cafe for the park, I set up a stall at the 2012 Summer festival and asked people to contribute to a painting made of the following questions, by writing in their own responses;

What does the park sound like?

What doe the park smell like?

What does the park taste like?

What does the park look like?

What does the park feel like?

Archbishop’s park is tucked in near the river in London’s SE1 www.lambeth.gov.uk/places/archbishops-park

Work made for long term installation in City Lit library. Writing paintings; “All we ever read, All we ever said”

“I am two”
Exhibition at the Café in Priory Park, Crouch End, London N8
30 January – 31 March 2016

This exhibition consists of paintings that have been made directly from life in January 2016 of trees around my house, just north of Priory Park, near Alexandra Palace.

I am very interested in the illustration of growth that the form of trees in winter reveal. The tree forms you see have been painted with immediacy using a Chinese calligraphy brush in one short sitting.

I often incorporate writing into paintings; in a sense I am painting with writing. Into each of these images the phrase ‘I am two’ has been written over and over again.

At the time of making I was 7-8 months pregnant – and wanting to use the occasional quiet time I had to paint these to reflect on my second pregnancy; the notion of “being two” and how wonderful and powerful an experience that is.

And at the same time to reflect on the parallel meaning of that phrase for my daughter, who is two year’s old. What does it feel to be two years old and all the intense experience of growth that this encompasses?

So the paintings have been made in an act of reflection on these two states of being which are so significant in my life right now. All the while the trees outside my house are in a constant state of growth and becoming too…

Find out more about Priory Park Cafe here http://prioryparkcafe.co.uk/

‘What’s in the Breeze’ Exhibition at The Haberdashery

Crouch End, London N8

May – June 2012

Find out more about the Haberdashery cafe here; www.the-haberdashery.com/