Through the language of paint, I question how it feels to take up space as a woman. Vibrant colours and selective-mark-making explore what it feels like to experience the world now through this human body. I am a collector of images, an archive of photographic bodies fill the studio: autobiographical, historical and contemporary; they are all pondered, processed and pulled apart by paint.

My practice balances on a tightrope between application and removal, of presence and absence. Hazy dry brush layers are confronted by transparent stains. Luminous coloured grounds pierce the darkness of opaque brushstrokes. My work, like the lives of women is a push and pull between what is visible and what is left out. To be seen but not heard. To speak eloquently, but only quietly. To be beautiful but not vain. To be intelligent but not too clever. To be present and poised but also not to take up too much space.

3D ceramic sculptures physically embody these themes. Domestic object / empty vessel / life giver / nurturer  or just a hollow image of beauty? As women we face so many expectations and stereotypes. What does it mean to exist both inside and outside of these roles?

My process is way of understanding, of observing and questioning the way women have learnt to sit, fit in, poise and pose themselves in the world. Photography speaks of the female body behind a lens, whereas painting gives the body a space of its own to stare back. To be reimagined and transformed.

Passive object turned active agent. Body turned being.