My art practice explores our relationship to nature and one another through sculpture and print. Lifestyles, in the western world, have separated us from nature and making by hand, while recent global events highlight the benefits these have to us.
These themes are explored primarily though kiln-formed glass techniques including pâte de verre (glass paste), lost wax casting, photography and print methodologies. Source material often reference historical objects from previous generations of my family or ideas generated on my daily nature walks.
The making process is time consuming and is often fraught due to the complexities of the material. Considerable skills and knowledge need to be amassed with an acceptance that you do not have full control over the outcome. The works use a familiar everyday material to represent forms not normally experienced in glass allowing the viewer to question the object and its meaning.
The process of translating an idea into glass is technically challenging and stimulating. Glass is a contradictory material. It can be both ephemeral and permanent, fragile and heavy, delicate and sharp and can pivot from transparent to opaque. It holds the possibility of literal and metaphorical magnification.
Archives: Artists
New Artists and reviews
2022
TG Transitions in Kiln-formed Glass –Touring various USA sites until late 2023
Its all in the Technique –National Glass Centre, Sunderland
European Glass Prize 2022- Coburg, Germany
Solo inaugural artist exhibition “Journeys and Horizons” Stourbridge Glass Museum
British Glass Biennale
Collaborations, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, co-curator and exhibitor
40years National Glass Centre Sunderland
2021
American Glass Society Conference
Toyama Glass Prize –Japan
Heijen Glass Competition, China
I achieved an MA (Distinction) in Glass from the University of Sunderland in 2022 and my final work ‘Hybridity. Do not ask’ was acquired for the permanent collection at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. My work has been selected for many exhibitions including the British Glass Biennale 2024, and in 2023 I was awarded a residency at the National Glass Centre by the Glass Society which resulted in ‘Past and Future’ and an artist development bursary by Firstsite, East Anglia’s Contemporary Art Gallery, to make a body of work around the word ‘enough’.
I am enjoying playing with colour and the different ways you can apply and use it. I am currently focusing on glass wear and getting the shape right for wine glasses, tublers, etc. In the future I want to go back to making some larger pieces, and to really experiment with form to translate what I want to the viewer.
I work with glass fusing and create jewellery, home accessories and sculpture. I have in the past year been awarded a commission with Burn The Curtain theatre company in Exeter to create a large glass outdoor sculpture I named ‘The glass Quilt’ which was created having worked alongside the community to develop a patchwork of different ideas reflecting Exeter’s green spaces. I also sell my work in small galleries in Teignmouth, Bovey Tracey, Torquay and Exeter.
Lately, designed and build an amusement park for cognitive challenged kids, 3 art installation
In new project, I continue to use a combination of my photography and glass materials to achieve a particular visual effect. As a glass artist I am trying to push the boundaries of combining photography and glass, and as a photographer I am exploring the boundaries of photography in both flat and three-dimensional presentations. I think this is what the Territory project has brought to my mind, and I will continue to use these techniques to create more beautiful works.
My panel “Very Fresh Fish” was selected for the British Glass Biennale 2022. Opening the double doors of the cabinet sets in motion the fish on the slab as a bug-zapper kills flies.