a gap year for the
soul

 

“My art, in all its manifestations, is the symbiosis between the story, the piece and the audience; a connectedness that forms between the three through an interactive exchange. There’s the art manifesting from me, then the art itself, with its own story, and then every audience member creating their own experience through the art itself and my story; and so all three come to be through collaboration, co-existing because of one another.

 Each experience is unique to every single audience member just as every piece I create is personal to me, but ultimately  connected to the whole. My work is not a vision, it’s not just a thing that you store in your cellphone by taking a picture or forget the instant you leave the exhibition or performance, it is something much deeper: it needs to last longer, live on and become more, to become a part of, not apart from. To live on through the witnessing of, to transform and change not just itself but those collaborating with it. By this I mean: I change when I create a piece, then my collaboration with materials changes the experience and story of those materials and then the audience collaborating with both me through my story and the materials/piece, change themselves and the artwork itself becomes something unique again, then a metamorphoses happens a few times in the hours or days after being witnessed by the audience as they change, think or do things differently because of it, and so it has a domino affect. We all leave imprints, every thing impacts everything, from atoms and wavelengths to thoughts and actions. I think this is what creative storytelling, if you like, is all about: something that becomes part of us as we become become a part of it, with both metamorphosing because of the connection. My art is a sort of alchemy, I take reality and transform it.

As an artist: I reach out to reach in.”

 

The storyteller is a multidisciplinary artist working with poetry, acting, abstract performance, film, ecotherapy, movement, neuroscience, nature and horitculture, space and place and stand up improvisation, with 20 years of professional performing experience.

 

As a trained actor, she found herself after years of professional acting, drawn to movement and group improvisation and playback theatre. In 2015, she was diagnosed with viral meningitis and encephalitis and was left with an acquired brain injury which forced her to completely rebuild her practice. As she was learning to read and write again, she was driven by an instinct to reflect on her experiences, documenting her day-to-day life through photos and poetry. She began creating detailed studies of her environment and inanimate objects. 

 

Bringing these to life became a way for her to engage again with the world, one where she is able to experience her artistic self in connection with other by seeing, feeling and being.

 

“My norm [all I had known] was disrupted. 

I realised I could make a difference by disrupting the norm”

Her work is concerned with identity, connection, resilience, thriving, energy, neuroscience, particle physics, environments and nature. In 2023 she delivered small, focused public projects to engage a diverse range of audiences. Using voice, body, movement, film, performance, improvisation, neuroscience, NSDR, nature and environments, playback theatre, improvised sound, writing and poetry, she engages the audience’s imagination to communicate and connect.

 

In recent years, she has set up support groups for others with chronic illness to connect, be heard and feel less alone, founded a campaign to raise awareness of invisible disabilities, hoping to inform and change perceptions and help service providers and the public consider ways to be more inclusive. Taking action in non linear and abstract ways to make positive change: she designed an accessible co-working space to enable chronically sick and disabled creatives be less isolated with particular focus on the features being brain injury and neurodivergent friendly; founded creative, fun and experiential ecotherapy sessions with nature in mind to give the public and in-hospital patients the chance to connect with themselves and their environment in positive, creative ways and be left feeling better for it; consults businesses, graduate neuroscience and product design students on developing products and creative health care for those with invisible disabilities; and collaborates with national charities on how to better focus their public relations to make a positive policy impact.

 

Her early experience of having meningitis and encephalitis has featured in national and local press and on national radio. Alongside her writing published by leading UK charities, in the press and journals, she regularly speaks at charity member and public events and works with medical professionals on how to better understand and engage with their patients.

 

In offering abstract experiential works of her experiences and the way she sees and interacts with the world, she hopes that others facing similar life experiences can feel less alone and 'other', that the public can leave better informed of the realities of what happens when one faces life changing ill health, as well as showing the world that we are all a part of, not apart from and how magic can be revealed when allowing ourselves to breathe in to any given situation, no matter how hard it seems.