​https://vimeo.com/90062165

The work of  Nic Webb is simply beautiful. The video above demonstrates the pure beauty in the tactility of materiality and making. His instinctive way of working with unseasoned wood allows the work to take its natural form; to go with how the wood responds and let it be. Because of this every piece made is unique . He goes with the instincts of the wood as well as his own. These I feel were learned as a child while growing up around trees, orchards and the rural landscape.
​This as aspect I can relate to. Growing up within a rural environment and the interaction as a child with the materials that nature presented us has influenced me greatly in the way I practice and develop work. I go with the materiality of materials. I push the materials by intervening with them; manipulating them breaking them down into other substances. These processes were explored as a child.....cutting, crushing, building, collecting, foraging, mixing, water, earth, wood, stone, flaura and fauna.  

​https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/06/antony-gormley-humans-building-termites-nest-white-cube

So drawn to this article and Gormley's take on the way the city of London is developing. He says he does not make his work with the intention to entertain or distract he wants his work to be the catalyst to making us see how extraordinary our lives are already! 50% of the population now live in a city environment; and environment which has been humanly constructed. Because of this we are becoming immune to relating to the world around us. These city scapes are being taken over by corporate industries, redeveloped and then left abandoned. The soul out of the city of London is slowly disappearing. The texture and real life/society is being supress by blindly walking into a world of 'cappuccinos & smartphones' suppressing creativity and imagination. Human nature only makes sense of nature; the seasons and elements; we 'feel' and 'experience' the change in the seasons and weather patterns; we live our lives according to them not to a concrete jungle. A city needs new ideas and creative richness to be vibrant.
​In my small way this is how I want people to see my work; for the viewer to take stock and relish the beauty in the little things the natural world, the real and textured world. To think about how they place themselves within the world/space they dwell.
​My quest to find an opportunity to have my 'organic' work displayed in the city of London is strong!!

 I have recently been drawn to Katie Spraggs depiction of grasses made out of porcelain (above). Her work reminded me of the grass and paper work I have been experimenting with recently. Her work has such a serene and tranquil beauty, which is characterised by the pure quality of the material. She has also been looking at the traces we leave on the landscape; the paths we leave which is evident in her work seen above.
​A comment that was recently made about some of my work was that they thought the material used was porcelain, when in  fact it was hand made paper.............

What a fabulous success our 'Beyond Landscape' preview event at Horticap in Harrogate was. Paula Hickey's work alongside my own was just fabulous and complimented each others visual language so well. Paula's ink, graphite and use of other dark materials made for a strong contrast along side my delicate and more organic work.  The response to our work was amazing and it was humbling to see so many people there. It was especially  great to experience peoples responses and to see how inquisitive people were to the processes we had used to produce our pieces. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to support us it was much appreciated. The exhibition will run until the 30th October.