My practice is rooted in process led, restorative making to reignite relationship with the natural world.  Working with wild plants helps me process difficult feelings relating to climate change and biodiversity loss.  My semi-wild allotment is research site, studio and materials source.  

“Foraging without tending is extraction” (Janet Kent, https://radicalvitalism.wordpress.com/)

I make botanical inks and pigments from managing the 200+ wild plant species to sustain biodiversity.  Inks and pigments have become my primary material for thinking about and holding the uncertainty of the climate crisis.  Abundant plants are also re-homed in collaboration with community groups, or as part of talks and walks I lead, spreading what were once common wild plants. 

I've used inks for temporary tattoos of plant species as I’m working with them, flick books of thumb prints, as part of shrines to plants and painting the earth to heal its cracks from the summer heat.  Currently i'm researching wild plant histories, medicine and folklore that's reflected in my daily devotional practice of drawing and writing about small changes at my allotment.

“It’s not just what you do, it’s who you are” (participant)

Much of my work is with people who don’t think of themselves as artists.  I've worked nationally and internationally with communities of interest and location, in schools, colleges, care homes, along canal towpaths, on urban streets and in rural settings.

I'm skilled at engaging those who are over-looked, marginalised or vulnerable, encouraging and supporting them to tell their story, try something new or long forgotten, to achieve, grow confidence and have fun.  This is making to make sense of our lived experience, transforming materials and ideas.