As a socially engaged Text Based Artist and Writer I am interested in the schisms and conflicts that exist between the personal and cultural agendas. I am fascinated by the way in which we both create and try to make sense of the worlds which we live in. I am interested in the experience of attempting to mediate diverse worlds, attempting to maintain an arts practice and navigate through the increasing complexities of the everyday.

How 'Open' is Open

22 January 2012

Blog

Before I get to the crux of what I have to say I want to make it perfectly clear that I think Shape Arts do some amazing work in the areas of Disability and Equality. However I was a little dismayed to read a call for submissions with a £10 fee. As a fulltime self-employed artist I have witnessed an increase in Pay to Display opportunities.  In a similar way the number of unpaid/or very poorly paid internships has increased and thankfully we are moving to limit and legislate these....

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Struggling Through

8 January 2012

Blog

In the first six months of 2011 i could count the number of 'paid' days work on my toes. This lead to an impact on my pocket and my health. The pressure was immense, the sense of failure even bigger - self doubt - self esteem - you name it - the rollercoaster of being a freelancer. I had no idea where my next project was coming from. So when things slowly turned around - at first a few days turning a bridge into a formal garden, then an exhibition in leeds and wakefield, a residency in Dundee...

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Getting Through

12 July 2011

Blog

I’m not whingeing. It’s just a fact. It’s hard and no denying it. This has been the hardest, year I have had since being a freelance artist. I am in the hinterland, on the cusp, of being emerging and emerged – whatever emerged means. It’s like some kind of spurious notion like somehow things will be totally different when you have emerged. I am not some kind of butterfly who is in the process of artistically cocooning himself in the studio to break out that...

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