During the pandemic, I had to stay indoors for a year. When I started to go out, I caught Covid… which became Long Covid. For the past 5 years, opportunities to explore the landscape - which was an essential part of my art practice - became very limited. When I was able to walk again, going out triggered a range of neurological responses which were challenging to manage.

In 2024, I used a residency in Finland to research interoreception - our ability to notice bodily signals and become aware of our internal state. This knowledge was combined with my art therapy experience, to develop activities which support self regulation of the nervous system. I now deliver workshops so that people can develop a creative practice that helps them to manage Long Covid and other long term conditions.

My own artwork uses photographs and plein air sketches to explore what enables me to engage with a place. It also documents the changes that are happening all too quickly as a result of human intervention and climate change. I usually start with representational sketches to understand what I am seeing. I move from these sketches to the studio, where the next stages capture what I remember. The process inevitably triggers memories of the joy of being present, alongside the challenges of managing physical obstacles. Navigating between the two has become an underlying theme in a lot of my work.