Lives in a Landscape – Artist’s statement
My work is my response to the landscape. I believe that reading the landscape is a hard-wired survival skill in us all. Landscape holds our history and sustains us – it inhabits us as much as we inhabit it.
I have chosen to work with natural materials from my local landscape as far as possible. I’ve also chosen to use traditional processes, which bring us closer to the landscape and lives lived on the land; processes such as forging and casting. The work celebrates the interaction of people with their cultural and natural environments.
My design is led by what the processes and materials can achieve and how pieces feel when held. The surface patterns, textures and forms are integral to the making.
The aesthetic is simple and understated. The character of a piece arises from the process of making and beauty comes with age, patina and wear.
Connecting with and creating in the landscape, a concern for sustainability and reflecting on the importance of the domestic is at the heart of my work. I want the viewer to find a sense of space and connection; and to reflect on the value of small lives well lived.
Education
Batchelor of Design course Jewellery and Metalwork. Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee
Ist class Honours 2015
Metals exchange semester SUNY New Paltz New York State
Spring 2014
Portfolio class. Tramway Visual Arts Studio, Glasgow
2011 /2012
Qualifications
Diploma in Town Planning . University of the West of England. 1974
Professional exams of Royal Town Planning Institute UK. 1975
Master of Public and Social Administration. Brunel University. 1987
Master of Public Health. Glasgow University. 2000
Certificate TESOL Trinity College. 2005
Awards
Bradshaw travel award 2015
Pittenweem Arts Festival Student Artist Bursary 2015
Goldsmith’s Company Silver Bursary Award 2015
Scottish Sculpture Workshop, artist in residence June 2015
Goldsmith’s Company Undergraduate Summer School in Silver-smithing 2013
Experience
Azza Fahmy Design Studio, Cairo. June/July 2014.
Non-stuff Festival upcycling workshops, Wiston 2014
Ebba Goring Studio August 2013
Bryony Knox at Coburg House June 2013
Eileen Gatt Studio May 2013
Exhibitions
New Designers 2015
Ones to Watch 2015 DJCAD degree show
East Neuk Open Studios – 2015
Silver in the Shadows, Scottish Fisheries Museum – May 2015
West Dean open studios – January 2015
Dundee Contemporary Arts Christmas 2014
Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee – Winter 2014
Azza Fahmy Design Studio Cairo – July 2014
SUNY New Paltz, New York State – Senior Studio 2014
Duncan of Jordonstone, Dundee – Open Day 2012
Duncan of Jordonstone, Dundee – Open Day 2013
Tramway Visual Arts Centre, Glasgow – Portfolio 2011
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow – Young Artists 2011
Skills
Jewellery and metalwork skills – fabrication and forming including mokume gane and casting; surface treatments including etching, enamel, patination and keum boo; basic stone setting. I have experience working with a range of metals including silver and bronze and with other materials including ceramics, organic materials such as berries, wood and fish skin, resin, found objects and acrylic.
Additional making skills include: Damascus steel, enamel, repousse, nunome zogane, Japanese metal alloys, etching, marionette carving.
Publications
‘Region 1 Workshop with Maureen Carswell – Using Foil’,
Quarterly Journal of British Guild of Enamellers. Winter 2014
‘Pearls is Tears’ video of my sound piece, December 2014
‘Lives in a Landscape, An investigation of art and the inspiration of landscape’, January 2015
Collections
Ute Decker, contemporary jeweller
Prof Paul Harris, Dean of Faculty, DJCAD
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