Blog

Recently I was invited to an Arts Inspiration Day at a secondary school to talk about being an artist. It was really interesting thinking about the pros and cons of owning a creative business, so I thought I’d share a bit on here…  The first thing I did when preparing for the careers talk was to make a list of all the things I do in my business. This was quite an eye-opener because I’d never really realised how many hats I wear – and also what a tiny part of the business the art bit actually is. I’d love...

This month a really cool thing happened in Leeds: 300 women and non-binary people gathered together to build a barn in just 24 hours, supported by The WOW (Women of the World) Foundation and Leeds 2023 City of Culture. I was there for the duration to document the action, tell stories about the ace women taking part and tackle important questions such as: would it be done in time? Would it ever stop raining? Was there enough Yorkshire Tea in the world to support this long endeavour?! (Spoilers: yes, yes and YES!)    The WOW Foundation was set up by Jude Kelly in 2009 to celebrate the achievements...

Around the time my daughter was one year old, I started learning calligraphy - drawing and painting quotes that I liked. I found myself most drawn to phrases that I could pin up in my daughter’s room that would surround her with positive messages and can-do statements. I wanted to fill my daughter's world with positivity because of how differently people (without necessarily meaning to) treated my kids. My son got: “what a strong boy you are! Here, catch this ball.” My daughter got: “what a pretty little girl you are! Do you like dolls?” Shopping for girls’ clothes meant...

Someone asked me the other day what my favourite thing was that I’d created. (This was hard because I'm rarely 100% happy with anything I make and will pick holes in my work until the cows come home.) After some thought, I realised that my favourite creation isn’t a card or print - and not even really to do with art at all. It’s a colouring book I made in 2019 to help improve children's mental health. It came about after I realised that my son and I had our best chats when we were colouring in stuff together –...