During my childhood I was given the nickname flossy teacake and it has stuck with me ever since.
I love nothing more than to play with my imagination and childhood memories through mixing and combining materials, which develop into curious 2D and 3D illustrations.
I have a fascination with typical English village life. This is probably due to its familiarity and blend of beautiful surroundings, enticing homes and gardens, tempting corner shops but most importantly the distinctive characters who live there.
However, it is hard for me to distinguish between the person and the place they live, because in my memory the person’s character, home, job, hobbies, and clothing are so entangled I simply can’t separate them. Buildings become people and people become buildings, with carefully selected forms and decoration, working simultaneously.
I have interpreted these childhood memories into an installation scenario, using ceramic, textiles and mixed-media. The combination of buildings, people and vehicles gives the sense of day-to-day activity, and it is possible to imagine that the village could spring to life at any moment.
The scene shows my passion for surface manipulation, through exploring colour, pattern and texture, whilst emphasising my obsession with collecting and gathering treasures. I have used many different construction methods including hand-building mainly with crank, screen printed fabrics, and machine and hand embroidery, all of which are ‘underpinned’ with mono printing techniques.
Mono-printing has given me a childlike unpredictability and charm which has formed the backbone of this quirky world. I have purposely manipulated scale and proportion, removing a conventional sense of reality.
I invite the viewer to delve into my ‘topsy-turvy’ world of curiosity and intrigue. I hope you find many surprises along the way.