I see my art as a tool.
I use it as a platform for self-reflection; to manage and understand my mental health.
I think it’s what I need to do to help myself.
I see the work I make as a by-product of an internal dialogue with a deeper sense of self.
I use it to create experiences and learn from.
I make my work for myself.
Im a mixed media artist based in Bristol. I currently use my art practice as a way of coping with mental health and chronic pain. I try to create links between my mental health and art in an attempt deepen the relationship I have with myself.
I think my practice is essentially cognitive behavioural therapy and my art is a by-product of this. Addressing my mental health has had to be my primary focus for the past few years and its felt like managing my health has consumed most of my time.
I’ve had to implement elements of CBT to my daily life to try and step away from thoughts and analyse my emotions. I feel like my work, and interests within my work, has helped me to make that process more interesting and allow me to approach my well being with a sense of curiosity.
To me, my work functions as a tool to use in line with CBT. It forms a point of communication with myself and helps reveal some of the complexities behind my emotions. My aim is to develop ways of using my work as a bridge between my internal and external experience of life.
I'm interested our relationship with sound.
Music has a profound psychological effect: science has shown that we have a neurological connection to music whereby dopamine is released from the brain in response to rhythm.
It is this involuntary engagement between the human brain and sound that intrigues me and forms the basis for my practice.
In an attempt to provoke a similar sense of engagement I use aspects of musical composition, such as rhythm, time and structure as a framework and process to create visual and sonic art. I’m especially interested in rhythm and seek ways in which a balance, or imbalance can be formed between the visual and auditory senses.
My work aims to explore the lines between science, art and music, with ideas rooted in themes of psychology. Intrigued in the detachment of conscious control, I often allow chance to become an integral part of the process.
I like to form a structure to work with and then allow sound or motion to occur naturally, as an ephemeral moment. Work often exists as temporal environments where light, sound or motion can be experienced in new ways.