Biography
This video, made by the talented Colette Nichol of Story Envelope, shows me at work in my studio and talking about my art.
When not watching and photographing crows and other birds, thinking and talking about them, or writing about them in my blog, I make art.
I think of this as a kind of distillation process. The essence of what I take from my observations eventually emerges as a series of images. Some of the images are simple portraits, other are more like visual stories with layers of different images combined to create a specific atmosphere.
These images are available as photographic prints, jewellery, gift and home décor and seasonally, calendars.
My work has been exhibited at shows here in Vancouver and the United Kingdom, and my work is for sale at various Vancouver shops and galleries here in BC, or worldwide from my online shop here and my Etsy store.)
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Born in the north of England, I grew up in an ultra-urban environment. We lived in a flat right under the Tyne Bridge (visualize the label on Newcastle Brown Ale). The rusting leftovers of the industrial revolution and fragments of the Roman Wall were my fabulous playgrounds. We didn't have a garden, but my mother was always helping me to examine the eclectic bits of nature that we came across on our walks.
After high school I studied at Bangor University in North Wales, specializing in Anglo-Saxon poetry. In my early twenties, I made the big move to northern BC where I hand-built a cabin miles from the nearest human neighbours and worked as a tree planter for several years. By the 1980's I had found a happy medium between extremes of urban and wilderness, living in Vancouver, studying art, working in graphic design and raising children (Lily and Ian) with my husband, Phillip.
My studio is located in my garden behind my house in East Vancouver. Edgar (the cat) and Geordie (the dog) are my Health and Wellness Committee, encouraging me lift my head from work at healthy intervals.
