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Born in Leicester in 1961, I moved to London 6 months after completing my education.
It was an exciting and challenging time, learning to stand on my own two feet and be independent at the tender age of 17.
It was the height of the punk era.
Living in such a cosmopolitan city,
I was able to release the artistic tendencies that had lain within me as a child and teenager, using myself as the canvas
In the years that followed, I continued on my quest to find the ultimate way of expressing myself. After work each day, I would rush home to grab a pen or brush and paint whatever surface was at hand.
One day I came home and decided that the kitchen wall was too bare,
I picked up a makeup brush and started painting little black marks right in the middle of the wall, then, ta da, 3 months later we had a leopard skin effect kitchen! I felt like I had a pair of Red Shoes on, I just couldn’t stop.
In 1990, I went on a year long Graphic Design course. I was in thumb nail heaven. After that my partner and I started travelling. We had got the bug, and would go away for 4 months, then 6 months, eventually for 18 months.
Whilst we were on that last trip my mind really opened up. Seeing and staying with people who were quite often living in the bleakest of conditions, whether it be from the mercy of Mother Nature or at the hand of man, the “Joie de Vivre” they all seemed to have, filled me with empathy. It was after returning from this trip that I was inspired to create my collection of mosaics.
Through this medium I have found my own Utopia, and continue to produce and exhibit my work in the hope that they bring as much exhilaration and joy to the observer as they do to me.
Each mosaic comprises of approx 4,000 pieces of hand cut tesserae, and depicts over 100 hours of happy Virgo time.