Land Art Dikemark, Norway

Dikemark Psychiatric facility and environment

Land Art Dikemark, Norway

Dikemark Psychiatric facility and environment
I was one of 7 international artists commissioned by LandArt Dikemark, Norway.



I made site responsive work based on my question ‘Is it temporary or enduring?’. This title relates to mental health, ecological health and the work itself.



Exploring the massive site of the abandoned psychiatric facility I was drawn to its rich social and environmental legacy. It was a self sustaining community of staff and patients from farming to shoemaking. In retrospect I heard of the presence of 100 pickled brains on site used for scientific study, this presents a unique and ethically complex alternative context for the project. With a practice involving extraction, exposing and revealing the unseen this felt intrinsic to the idea of treatment or regeneration of landscape and mindscapes.



A process I revisit is an anti peat cut, this was first explored during a land art project for Artscape, Wales. I cut a famous welsh weave pattern into the ground. This spoke of the legacy of colonialism, slavery and rural poverty woven into the history of mid Wales and beyond. In Norway I exposed half a brain in the ground and buried biochar back into the earth, returning the turf to leave no trace. This action can be seen as an ecological act aimed at sequestering carbon for the future, contributing to carbon capture and addressing environmental concerns.



The projects had significant engagement of 1200 students which meant we had a wonderful exchange of ideas and viewpoints. Topics were biochar and its applications, carbon sequestration and natural carbon sinks. Invasive plant species and ecology. Mental health and the healing potential of natural environments. The environment and mind as resource or vital and sacred material.

Portalis Project - Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth

Responding to place, time and materials for the Portalis Project

Portalis Project - Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth

Responding to place, time and materials for the Portalis Project
Artist Interpretations commissioned by Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
Portalis Project - Supported by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation Programme.

This transdisciplinary project investigates how Mesolithic peoples, those first settlers might have adapted to their surroundings in order to survive and seeks to understand whether there are any parallels with how we can adapt to climate change now. 

I visited the University of Wales Trinity St David's Talsarn Archaeology dig with my children. This was very exciting and a great addition to my research for the project.



There were lots of students and volunteers making great efforts to find more Microliths and evidence of human activity on what would have been an island in a large lake during the mesolithic. People would have hunted for fish and wildfowl in a landscape that is now trees and divided grazing land. Whilst we were at the dig a sample of an ancient tree was being sliced and sent off for carbon dating.



I was given a sample of excavated earth and charcoal for my materials research



PART 1
Mesolithic Mother & 300 Thumbprints

It began with a 20 Mile walk as embodied creative diary carrying dandelion cordage made from 300 dandelion stems wrapped around a mother carved from oak.



I set off from Cors Caron raised peat bog and Mesolithic archive following the Ystwyth River to Tan Y Bwlch Beach and its archaeological Microlith processing site.
Once at the beach I took red ochre with its primal, symbolic, industrial and cultural significance and used an egg to make tempera paint mixed in a shell.




I then made 300 thumbprints on a washed up tree. It is 300 generations back to the mesolithic or 300 generations of my mothers. This was a meditative, temporary intervention designed to disappear with the weathering from sky and sea.



I walked on sweaty and tired to give a talk at the opening of the Portalis project at The Amgueffda Ceredigion Museum.





Part 2
Carbon Connection
A Temporary yet enduring thumb print cut into the ground at The University of Wales Trinity St Davids campus well being Garden.



This work was designed to mirror the nearby carbon sinks, such as forests, wetlands, farmland and peat bog. By gently cutting turf to reveal the soil beneath then adding biochar to heal the ground adds a layer of reverence and to the project perhaps making is sacred consecrated ground.



The use of biochar ensures the longevity of the artworks even though they should leave no trace to the human, serving as a lasting reminder of the importance of environmental conservation, that the work can contribute to a bigger ecology and ultimately sequesting vital carbon back into the earth.



Site-Specific Designs: Each artwork I make is uniquely composed to suit its specific location and research for the project, ensuring that it integrates seamlessly with the natural landscape.
The passing public often engage with my processes raising awareness about environmental issues and this fosters a sense of stewardship among the community.


The project contributed to carbon sequestration, soil health improvement, and overall ecological restoration in the area in parallel to the healing nature of the well being garden itself.

Part 3
Nine Hazel Sticks.
Nine Hazel Sticks was a collaborative land art intervention working alongside and supported by the artist Pauline Woolley. Pauline's award winning works often relate to the night sky and solar imagery. Here is the film of my performance & temporary intervention by Pauline Woolley.



Borth beach has one of the best preserved ancient submerged forests in the UK. I helped Archaeologist Dr Martin Bates take an auger sample of the deep marine clay and peat sediments. The project developed from a child's question. How long would a hazel pole stand upright in this intertidal zone of exposed clay?

So this was the start of my third and final exploration along the Ceredigion coast between Borth and Ynslas Coastal Nature Reserve.
Hazelnuts have been harvested since Mesolithic times over 9,000 years ago. Stone-lined pits filled with over 100,000 burned hazelnut shells have been discovered dating to 6000 BCE.

In Celtic mythology there is an ancient tale of a sacred pool where nine holy hazelnut trees grew. This marked the border between this world and the underworld. The hazel nut is meant to be imbued with wisdom and prophetic knowledge. Also the druids, Greek and Roman gods were aided by a hazel staff when travelling between worlds.

By using materials of the Mesolithic like Hazel, red ochre, chalk and charcoal I made temporal connections of place, culture and materials of Ireland and Wales.

Painting each hazel pole with egg tempera and setting them deep in the archive of clay yet pointing to the vast night sky became a sacred act. They were tidal gauges and human support marking the liminal intertidal space and the horizon line as earth turned, sun retreated and moon rose. The ephemeral nature of the works and the emphasis on change, flow and flux above us, within us and all the space between made this an extremely emotive and exciting experience. Locals and tourists interacting with the process and in conversation became custodians of the work. They kept me updated on how many sticks survived the weather and each high tide, documenting the process for me. The sticks weren't washed up and there is no physical trace of the work remains.

The film edited by and in collaboration with Pauline Woolley is on permanent display at Ceredigion Museum, Wales. UK

Curating: NSTK podcast launch exhibition

NSTK podcast and exhibition

Curating: NSTK podcast launch exhibition

NSTK podcast and exhibition
NSTK Exhibition Spring 2023
This show was organised and curated by myself and Rob White to support the launch of the NSTK Website and podcast.
Venue: 35 Gamble Street, Nottingham



Susan Forster - Sculpture & installation





Junko Burton - Painting & Pauline Woolley - Astro and alternative photography


Rob White, Junko Burton & Pauline Woolley



Tim Beckham - Sound & Photography



Mandy Roland-Smith - Ceramics





Billie Ireland - Sculpture, prints & Film





Rob White - Painting, Sculpture & Animation



Podcast 1: Pauline Woolley in conversation about her process and award winning work 'Solar Tree'.



Pauline is an artist based in the UK and her practice deals with her relationship to the sky, time, place and astronomy.

You're Not Supposed To Know (NSTK) is a UK-based partnership between artists Billie Ireland and Rob White. This space has been developed as a place to journey with other artists into the metaphysical and unknown. There will be developing content of Podcast conversations, films, curating and much more. Join us and travel beyond the every day with our chosen creatives, who grapple with not knowing and the mysteries of existence.

www.notsupposedtoknow.art

Workshops, teaching & events

The workshops and public events I facilitate make space to reimagine our relationship to carbon through creativity.

Workshops, teaching & events

The workshops and public events I facilitate make space to reimagine our relationship to carbon through creativity.
Feedback from workshops: Articulture and the Artscape Public Project

Whilst Billie's work may be considered conceptual her approach is pragmatic and grounded which makes her work accessible to anyone of any age. Her audience  engagement was informative and fun and appealed to all on many levels. Billie's  warm and approachable personality made this a very enjoyable experience for Articulture.

Oriel Davies Gallery Workshops: Crew Celf Youth Group
Y peth mwyaf diddorol rydych chi wedi i ddysgu? What interesting thing you have learnt?

How to make paint with eggs and charcoal
How to turn the most delicate objects into charcoal
eggs feel funny
egg paint
How charcoal is made
Charcoal
How to make tempera paint using egg yolk
How you make charcoal and it can be made with more than just wood
All about charcoal
How to make paint

Y rhan fwyaf cyffrous y dydd? Most exciting part of the day?

Swapping the drawings
drawing
Making charcoal
sitting with partner and charcoal
getting to draw what I want
meeting everyone in person
drawing with charcoal
drawing with partners
Making egg paint
Getting Charcoal-y
Experimenting
Collecting things to make into charcoal
Experimenting with new things




I have delivered 'Carbon Connection' workshops making charcoal with various groups including:

Oriel Davies Gallery - Designing and delivering a 6 week Course. Connecting with Wellbeing and Greenspace though Carbon Connections

Oriel Davies Gallery Newtown - Criw Celf Youth Group. Making and Exploring connections to green space. Making charcoal, inks and paints made from foraged organic materials.



Oriel Davies Gallery Newtown - Men's Shed & Wellbeing in Greenspace



Artscape PowysCC & Partners - Public workshops & demonstrations collaborating with BiocharWales & Montgomery Wildlife Trust. Families and groups attending live performances at the Hafren Forest to coincide with Cop26



Open Newtown - Autumn Share Public Arts Event Newtown- Engaging General Public and Young Families



Sacred Carbon Connections - Both Fire and Carbon are sacred. They are not to blame for our current crisis that is the man made abuse of its power and energy at the detriment of the earth. The elemental energy involved should be treated with creative curiosity, reverence and care.

The workshops I facilitate allow room to reimagine our relationship to carbon through foraging, sustainability and transforming organic materials into Charcoal, Biochar and creative materials. Through curiosity and creative play we can see carbons true sacred potential and store it for the future. Through the magic of pyrolysis we can see transformation in process and reconnect with the true energy and potency of carbon.

We explore making charcoal, carbon treasures, hand made egg tempera paint & inks

Foraging and sustainably sourcing art materials and temporary art forms

Making landscape interventions, joining together to share possible rituals and ceremony to compost and store biochar for the future

Some Feedback from the Criw Celf Youth Group.



Residency - 326Artspace UK

Exchanging ideas and thoughts with artists Pauline Woolley & Val turton

Residency - 326Artspace UK

Exchanging ideas and thoughts with artists Pauline Woolley & Val turton


Residency Space - Sharing and connecting with artists Val Turton & Pauline Woolley.
Talking & Making
Artistic Rituals Connecting Place, Space, Materials & Process.
Symbolic Earth Intervention - Sobriety, Truth and The Eternal Spirit
Carbon Connections - Charcoal, biochar, compost and carbon sequestration.

Exhibition: Art + Science - Gwenllian Ashley Art Prize

Exhibition: Art + Science - Gwenllian Ashley Art Prize

The exhibition +Positive brought together artworks from across mid Wales art schools in response to the climate crisis. It was a pleasure to be amongst such lovely company and I was a winner of the Gwenllian Ashley Art Prize.



My winning works were produced whilst homeschooling and studying for my Masters degree during the first Covid lockdowns. They were inspired by the many playful art and science experiments I developed with my children over this period. These handmade, cabbage Ph paper, origami boats are in response to Ocean Acidification.

Exhibition: The Lives We Want with Poet Laureate Mererid Hopwood & Poet Surrealist Mary Jacob

Poetry and Process

Exhibition: The Lives We Want with Poet Laureate Mererid Hopwood & Poet Surrealist Mary Jacob

Poetry and Process
The Lives We Want Exhibition. Aberystwyth Arts Centre

I collaborated with two wonderful poets who responded to my charcoal/ carbon art work for this exhibition.

Hafn y Glo by Welsh Poet Laureate Mererid Hopwood and first ever woman to be awarded the Chair in the Eisteddfod.

A dyma Hafn y Glo.
Hollt finiog ar fy rhestr
rhwng cadernid Dyffryn yr Allorau
a meddalwch Dôl y Plu.
Hafn y Glo.
Rwy'n chwilio
ar ymylon adnabod
am stamp y rhedyn
sy'n estyn ei fysedd o'r oesoedd
cyn yr oes o'r blaen.
Hafn y Glo.
Rwy'n gwrando am arogl y gwlith,
neu chwiban y dihuno yn llinynnau'r awr
pan ddadweindiodd y ffidil las ei phen.
Hafn y Glo
a'i golau oer.
Hafn y Glo
yn fin, yn gledd,
yn gilfach cyfrinach
fel cof erioed.
Hafn y Glo.
Mae enw hŷn na hwn
mewn marwydos rhywle, sbo.
Hafn y Glo.
Mae'n dwyn fy anadl.

The Lives We Want curated by Matthew Jarvis

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is affecting all areas of life, and living with the coronavirus has thrown into relief many of our habitual ways of being and our ways of living on this planet, including our entanglements with the non-human world. Covid-19 has provided a tragic reminder of the interconnections on which we all depend, underlined by the continuing threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. In the light of these intertwined issues, we need cultural, artistic, and technological responses which help us to rearticulate new visions of what matters and how to engage with planetary realities and relationships – human and non-human. 
 
Following this theme Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) and Aberystwyth University students (undergraduate and postgraduate) were invited to submit proposals for scholarly, creative, or critical/creative crossover contributions to a multi-site exhibition which will run physically at CAT and Aberystwyth Arts Centre.  

Mary Jacob is a poet and Surrealist practitioner whose work spills across traditional boundaries - a poem may include song and movement when performed, a song may be wrapped up in a story, an image may be created or found as an essential link to a piece of creative writing. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. Her work has been published globally in journals such as Ink Sweat and Tears, Uut Poetry, Surreal Poetics, Visual Verse and more.

Process notes: This is my immediate response to Billie Ireland’s video, Physical Carbon

Leaving Traces

thorn-fingers 
cradle and crush
pop sizzle
sounds of fire in the crumbling


but back up


no fire in the making
just heat without breath
condense down 
to structure and black


move forward now
MARY JACOB

Physical Carbon Film


Public Art - The Source - An Artscape Commission

Barefoot Pilgrimage - The Spiral - The Weave

Public Art - The Source - An Artscape Commission

Barefoot Pilgrimage - The Spiral - The Weave
The Source
is a site-specific art commission in three parts; I was selected to make this work for the Artscape partnership project in the Hafren Forest, Powys. Wales.
Several creative practitioners from dancers to sound artists, writers and science collaborators to comedians and poets, worked to engage the communities across the county in climate conversations to coincide with Cop26.

Articulture's Julie Ann Heskin and Sarah Morton managed the
Artscape Powys Project October - December 2021.

Billie Ireland's application for  the commission immediately grabbed the imagination's of the panel. It was unanimously chosen to take forward because it engaged so imaginatively with the core theme of climate change and the Hafren Forest itself.
 
Whilst Billie's work may be considered conceptual her approach is pragmatic and grounded which makes her work accessible to anyone of any age. Her audience  engagement was informative and fun and appealed to all on many levels.

It was a pleasure to see and support an artist who was clearly in their element enjoying the journey that her work took her.
She wove the  themes of climate change, connection to place, local history and  carbon in an imaginative and creative manner. 
The  commission  proposal was well thought through with a realistic budget  and was delivered  within a very challenging time frame.
Billie's  warm and approachable personality made this a very enjoyable experience for Articulture




Part 1: ‘The Barefoot Pilgrimage’ was a journey to the source of the Afon Hafren or Severn River, to collect water samples from the peat bogs of Plumlumon. These were then sent to Phycologist Dan Fagan of @awesomealgae on Instagram.



Using the programme of events led by youth collective Re-Peat I started my research into the layered micro and macro human and non-human realms of time and space framed within our threatened peat lands. I also invited Dan from Montgomery Wildlife Trust to demonstrate to families the importance of Peat land through his fun interactive activities.



I walked barefoot to connect and to stay curious about my privileged perceptions. Also I created a personal, sacred journey connecting to my female ancestry through walking and nature.



Part 2: ‘The Carbon Spiral’ was created by taking debris from forestry clear cutting and turning it into biochar. This was then processed into black tempera paint creating a spiral on the trunk of a dead tree.



It forms a totem that reflects on transformation and the cycle of birth, life and death. I circumambulated the tree to assist in creating a sacred, poetic and sensitive engagement with the landscape and the non-human elements, creating personal sacred interactions.



Part 3: ‘Weaving Carbon Connection’ used the classic Welsh weave pattern cut into the turf at the meadow in the Hafren Forest. This became an anti-peat cut, this was then filled with bio-char, as both a symbol linking place, material and people. I invited Tony from Bio-char Wales who comes from an Welsh upland's farming family. He demonstrated and discussed the use of a bio-char and the retort.



Extraction, waste and energy consumption become part of an evolving conversation, questioning how we can creatively use carbon sequestration for the future. It's also an invitation to shift our perceptions within a web of narratives found in this landscape. Of historic and political land ownership, Welsh Plains wool production and slavery, subsistence economies and historic tenant farming entwine with redundant MOD sites testing Rapier missile systems still classified by the government. These woven and often forgotten and obscured stories connect materials, people and place across space and time.

ARTSCAPE is a creative partnership alliance between Powys County Council’s Arts & Cultural Service, National Resources Wales, Impelo, 4Pi Productions and Articulture involving local arts associates and communities.
The partnership has been formed to engage imaginatively engage with communities to stimulate re-connectivity, stir an enthusiasm for environmental caret taking in the face of climate change, and promote people’s wellbeing though interrelated environment / place based and virtual / digital arts experiences.



Exhibition - Sacrificed to Fire - Aberystwyth School Of Art

Exhibition - Sacrificed to Fire - Aberystwyth School Of Art

MA Fine Art exhibition at Aberystwyth School of Art. I was awarded a Distinction for developing this new work and developing a revitalised research and materials led Practice.


The Art of Not Knowing. The School of Art, Aberystwyth University



This is the culmination of two years exploring and researching amorphous carbon and the action of destructive distillation, this exhibition unearths narratives of labour, loss and transformation. It is an exploration of the unknown.


Self portrait folding modular origami



These once robust sculptural structures were transformed into delicate carbon or charcoal forms using pyrolysis (applied heat in the absence of oxygen. The energy of sacrifice, the ritual of repetitive, labour-intensive action, the transformation using fire all became central to the work. The transient, fragile state and structure, the essence of matter transformed to carbon reminds us of our vulnerability and that everything is connected. Our place in the world is a precarious one yet it allows us to make connections and feel joy and sorrow in the shared energy within the web of life and the sublime beyond what we think we know.


Sacrificed To a Breathless Inferno. Recycled & carbonised sculpture on
Iron Tray



Through the ancient craft of charcoal making I attempt to reveal the moment of transformation. Through an intimate ritual in alchemy, potent energy is released and stored within a continual cycle. The exciting breathless inferno of forced decomposition transforms perceived life back to its amorphous essence, carbon.


Sacrificed To a Breathless Inferno. Recycled & carbonised origami modular sculpture on
Iron Tray



I use experimental slow film to attempt to capture energy and transformation. I made the film "The Journey Matters' following on from my 'Physical Carbon' film made for my Constructive Distillation Exhibition.



Alchemy and the journey from tree to ink investigates the literal transformation of materials into visual and written language.



I once again pushed against new techniques and the intensive process of creative frottage (rubbings). These are actually more like a dry relief print from the solid material itself. I make complex, time consuming, meditative origami forms that were then carbonised. For each frottage or rubbing/print I crushed a complex carbon paper sculpture, destroying or sacrificing it to the technique, trying to capture the energy of collapse. it's disaster that brings growth and new beginnings from the dust, new opportunities for growth.


Space 7 Carbon Frottage on Paper

Exhibition - Constructive Distillation - Aberystwyth School of Art

Carbon Matters

Exhibition - Constructive Distillation - Aberystwyth School of Art

Carbon Matters
#Constructive Distillation
Carbon Matters

This work was made during my Masters at Aberystwyth University. The time and focus allowed me to transition into new ways of working. This comes at a time when I am reflecting on the paintings and works made before and after becoming a mother. Where birth, trauma and death entwined into chaotic energy and were reflected in the turmoil and confused tangle of life and art-making. Within the current transition is an underlying theme, where for over 20 years I've focussed on the details. My process and materials covered and exposed whilst creating order and an aesthetic from chaos. The journey to making this work enabled that chaos to find order, my art practice to become focussed and within this work distilled to its essence.

DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION or the making of charcoal is the exciting inferno of forced decomposition, transforming life back to its amorphous essence as carbon dust.
The ritual and energy involved in making and then carbonising the work was thrilling and I wanted to know why this was so appealing? The title of the exhibition CONSRUCTIVE DISTILLATION came about because the process of bringing this work to fruition allowed me to gain some clarity. I was able to acknowledge that the work is deeply personal and reflects the human experience. This came about through in depth investigation of materials and the ritual of making alongside the experimental and often sacrificial nature of the process involved.


Essence 1: Carbonised Prunus Spinosa thorns







Complex Carbon. Aberystwyth School of Art





Exhibition View. Aberystwyth School of Art






Still of film Physical Carbon:Starburst.





The starburst collapse captured using the Frottage technique





Cosmic Carbon. Transformation captured using the Frottage technique.





Land Intervention - Morning Ash Mourning (ongoing project)

Chalara Ash Dieback

Land Intervention - Morning Ash Mourning (ongoing project)

Chalara Ash Dieback
#Morning Ash Morning
Chalara Ash Dieback is a disease set to devastate Ash trees in the Uk. It is caused by a fungus names Hymenoscyphus fraxineus originating in South asia and transmitted through airborne spores. My ongoing artist's investigation reflects on resilience and loss whilst documenting a transformed personal yet plant dominated landscape in Mid Wales, bordering Shropshire.











Land Intervention - Seeing Trees Seeing (ongoing project)

Pinhole Solargraphs

Land Intervention - Seeing Trees Seeing (ongoing project)

Pinhole Solargraphs
#Seeing Trees Seeing


Pinhole Solargraph from Hawthorne Tree









This project takes me closer to trees and trees closer to me. I'm trying to bridge the gap i feel between our beings. A reverential ecology of sorts.

Currently I have pinhole cameras acting as an eye. Capturing the sun rise and fall on the ancient borderlands of Wales. From the gnarly Hawthornes on windswept exposed summits to the threatened ancient Ash trees, i try to identify my connectedness with the complex, more than human natural plant landscape. The work is posing the questions. 'What have these trees seen? What do they see? And do they see me?'.

With some plants having up to 11 photoreceptors where we only have four, their ability to see becomes quite a complex subject. When seeing becomes tied into something as essential as light being an energy source, it is a fascinating area of research. When you spend time submersing yourself in plant ruling realms (not quite like my childhood hero David Bellamy, who shrank to the size of an ant in his 1980's TV series), but nonetheless plant perception becomes something magical to ponder.

I have always been in awe of the ancient tree. Growing up in Nottinghamshire I was lucky enough to play near Robin Hood's Major Oak and I got inside many a trunk of these ancient beauties. As an adult I visited many forested biospheres worldwide. Cloud forest in Costa Rica, depleted drought damaged rain forest in Australia, temperate forest and the complex Rainforest and Rio Negro flooded forest in the Amazon and Borneo. On reflection trees and the multitude of life they support might be a bit of an obsession. But not everyone feels this way, plants are a commodity for human consumption, I've seen first hand the palm oil plantations that go on for miles and miles in Malaysia, replacing native forests and there dependents who are often seen as pests getting in the way of human advancement. Yet the complexity of all beings and our commonality should alert us to the connectedness of all things on earth and beyond. Our reverance to trees through myth, magic, art and poetry should be a celebration of really seeing the divine in our interconnectedness.



Hawthorne tree on the ancient Corndon Hill looking west into the heartland of Wales







Covid Times - Carbon Sink Life Boat Carbon Life Sink Boat

Ocean Acidification

Covid Times - Carbon Sink Life Boat Carbon Life Sink Boat

Ocean Acidification
#Carbon Life Sink Boat
CARBON LIFE

SINK BOAT


Too Sure To Shore: Handmade pH paper, dried plant root,
ground shell, homemade pH test water, Limpet Shell, charcoal



I use transformative actions on materials to investigate the part humans play in nature's complex processes. This award winning work was chosen as part of the group exhibition Climate Changed to be shown at Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Autumn 2021 (postponed until 2022).
This project is an ongoing exploration of my materials and process, creative, biological and chemical. The ritual of paper folding & playful basic scientific experiments exploring Ph modifiers, organic inks and photography lead me to return to the ephemeral and transient nature of material and life.



• Currently, the ocean takes up about one quarter of global CO2 emissions from human activities. The uptake of CO2 in the sea causes ocean acidification, as the pH of seawater declines.
• In recent decades, ocean acidification has been occurring 100 times faster than during natural events over the past 55 million years. These rapid chemical changes are an added pressure on marine ecosystems. A reduction in carbonate availability reduces the rate of calcification of marine calcifying organisms, such as reef-building corals, shellfish and plankton.
• The combined effects of elevated seawater temperatures, de-oxygenation and acidification are expected to have negative effects on entire marine ecosystems and cause changes in food webs and marine production, and will also result in economic losses.

Source: The European Environment Agency
www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/ocean-acidification-3/assessment



Too Sure To Shore (side View). Handmade pH paper, dried plant root,
ground shell, homemade pH test water, Limpet Shell, charcoal





Stranding: Handmade pH paper, homemade pH test water, charcoal & ash








Solo Exhibition - The Hormone Hermit And The Hairy Moon Solo Exhibition

Motherhood

Solo Exhibition - The Hormone Hermit And The Hairy Moon Solo Exhibition

Motherhood
2017 - 2018 This body of work charts my experience of pregnancy and motherhood. As a mother to twin boys and a daughter I document this alien state, with all its mystery and ambivalence, both physical and emotional. I explore the meanings of two very different experiences of pregnancy, birth and nurturing. Pregnancy and birth stirred up the loss of my own mother, loss of myself and the stark reality of my own mortality.



I want my images to embody and echo the inherent contrasts of strength and beauty with loss and conflict. The cycle of birth and death, light and dark appear obliquely and more obviously, interwoven with intergenerational and universal experience. The works evoke deep dichotomies and the eternal cycle. Carrying and feeding identical twins meant naturally creating symmetry in images. It also calmed and created space to meditate on my acts of feeding and my physical positioning. In contrast the organic visceral nature of the more abstract paintings attempt to visualise the unseen workings of the birthing body and beyond.



It is always fundamental that I grapple with materials and processes, creating images that capture a spiritual dimension through the use of ancient and traditional techniques. The time intensive preparation of gesso grounds, carved and layered, permanently record these fleeting moments. I draw using hair fixed with wax and egg yolk. I burn into paper and use fluid paint and intense mark making.



The work includes humour, a necessary component to creating artwork against the background of the constant demands of three very young children. Their contribution is an exciting and essential part of the work, both materially and emotionally. Without them this work would not exist.














2014 - Explorations - A Group Exhibition

2014 - Explorations - A Group Exhibition

This self curated exhibition with fellow artists Pauline Woolley (Astro photography) and Paula Reid (Painting, photography & digital) showed works of exploration and was held in Nottingham at the Gamble Street Art Space.


Gamble St Gallery, Nottingham



My works were made at a pivotal time whilst postpartum and during my second pregnancy. They reflect a time of joy, introspection, grief and visioning the unknown.

I was grappling without a guide the unexplored, unknown territory of gestation, birth and mothering. As with most new mothers I was thrown deeply into reflecting on my own childhood and mother's role. Having lost my mother whilst she still breast fed me aged two and now having identical twins growing inside me, there was a constant knife-edge of fraught fragility for their potential life because of TTTS (Twin to twin transfusion syndrome). This exhibition holds that space and time, of walking a line, a thread barely held and a deep mourning for what has been lost or potentially could be, all amongst the joy of nurturing my first born.


Life V Death. Clap of hands.
Carved traditional gesso and silver point, gold leaf, acrylic, bilberry branch, artists hair and cotton on wood.



I employed layering, pyrography, piercing and engraving on paper and using the ancient medium of traditional gesso on wood panel (as artisan icon painters traditionally use) for this work. These surfaces allows for layering and paring back of materials, the works swing between the abstract visions of the mind and internal body and its process to the more figurative reflections on my genetic family history.



Pricked paper and grey hairs from my gestational period.



This watercolour was painted from a picture of the grandmother I never new. I pierced it to allow threads of light and it was mounted on a window alongside 'Baby Wisom' above, a pierced paper drawing of my daughter with a beard of wisdom sewn from my grey postpartum hair loss.


My Mother's Mother



Works mounted on the window so natural light could connect the dots between the lost generations. Gamble Street Gallery


Window view, Gamble St



Genetics: Do bees have fathers? Who was my mother?
Below are traditional gesso panels carved and rubbed with silverpoint. A bee in gold leaf is poised next to the child's hand and another real bee is held in an acorn nest with swan's bum fluff held in the Mother's hand. Hand felted wool connects the child's hand to the mother.




Gloves on a string annoyed me as a child.
Hand rolled felt, silver point, gold leaf, acorn cup, bee and swan bum fluff on traditional gesso on wood./p>