My Story
From as far back as I remember, creativity, in the form of art, drama, music and dance, had a very profound influence on my way of listening, responding to and interpreting the world around me.
As a child it appeared I was fearless in getting up in front of people to sing, dance and act and I would get excited at the prospect of family gatherings that gave me the opportunity to perform some theatrical piece or other that I had devised. (inspired by panto?, Cats, Starlight Express, Les Mis?)
I remember at the age of six (on holiday in Majorca) that without any encouragement or hesitation, threw myself into evening entertainment provided and organised by the resort in which we were staying. It was a Cabaret piece, in which I was the only child and myself and the rest of the cast were dressed as hula dancers. …..Oh the Joy of creating and expressing!
This joy continued throughout my early childhood. I would get ridiculously excited about up-coming drama lessons, and getting creative and messy in the art room.
However, when I hit 13, and moved into secondary school (an all-girls school that focussed on academia) I struggled with my studies and having been told I had dyslexia, which was little understood back then, I decided I would write a letter to an agony column of a popular children’s magazine. In it I mentioned I was struggling to keep up at school and wanted to change schools where I could focus on the subjects I loved. As luck would have it, it got printed. And showing my parents was enough to get the ball rolling.
The Arts Educational school in Tring had an excellent creative arts programme and the way the time-table rolled out there seemed perfectly balanced between half a day vocational studies and the other half academic.
The school was so much more relaxed and I blossomed with there being space for acceptance and understanding.
I moved on to study acting at the Oxford School of Drama, and really enjoyed my time there. I have a big appreciation for the craft of theatre, in telling a story and collaborating on a production with others.
A few years after I graduated, I stepped away from the centre stage.
It was around then I struggled with depression, anxiety and feelings of low self-esteem. This was when I started getting back into drawing and painting.
Then after a period of time, I would call a dark night of the soul, I had an epiphany one evening… my epiphany woke me up/opened me up, so to speak, to higher realms of consciousness.
From this time onwards, I became interested in exploring the 12 universal laws and my wish has been to tap into creativity connected to the Divine; to the source of being, consciousness, spirit, or whatever you might like to call it. The place where existence comes from, where dreams are made.
I headed back to college in 2015 (St Albans) for two years and then University of Hertfordshire, one year, to complete my degree in Fine Art.
In year three I was railroaded away from the artwork I felt I wanted to produce. I wanted to find and create a ‘style of art’, but ended up studying the life work of Louise Bourgeois, her sculptural and installation works. She was a remarkable Artist and a formidable if not eccentric woman. And despite the fact that studying her took me on a tangent, I learned a lot from her. In particular her strong work ethics, and her passion and dedication to the world of visual art.
My creative life now
My current visual art work is largely abstract in nature. I like to explore with a broad range of materials and paint to experiment with line, shape, colour and form. The key to my artistic expression is never allowing a particular style or method to overwhelm or dominate my work.
The fluidity I find when experimenting with media and materials feels organic and is about intuitive processes rather than a focus on the outcome. I love the spontaneity and freedom this creativity gives me, the immediacy and the joy.
I also have a passion for sculpture, photography and printmaking which I dabbled with at college/Uni and I am keen to explore further.
I read a vast amount on the subject of creativity as a discipline for healing and transformation and hope to deliver workshops on the subject in the future.