movers & shakers community fund

Amazing news! My application for the first round of MAKE/SHIFT Movers & Shakers Community Fund was successful! 

My project - People, Place and Plants celebrates the power of plants and is inspired by the varied native and medicinal herbs taking root around Heanor Market Place, part of the sites recent update. People, Place and Plants engages local people with place through observational and expressive drawing and the creation of herbal tea blends and artwork inspired by the site. I’m curious to see if memories of local plant folk-law could be sparked and what we will share and learn. 

Click on the links for more information about Make/Shift and the fund. Applications will open for the Spring 25 round of funding on Wednesday 19th March 2025. Details on how to apply will be available nearer the time.

horizons - self portrait/photography/collage

Been having a fabulous time with students at St Martins Horizons 6th Form this term!

We are working towards self portraits inspired by contemporary British artist Maria Rivens brilliant scrapbook-style collage. 

Our first activity focused on spotting positive traits in ourselves and sharing them in a bold impactful way. Each participants hand provided the framework for their words and the positivity in the room was so uplifting!

Thank you Derby QUAD for inviting me to lead this project.

draw derby - 3 years!

December 2024 will be my final Draw Derby as creator/host/organiser, I'm stepping back as I need to focus on paid work. My ambitions for Draw Derby were bigger than I've been able to facilitate - I had hoped to run drawing workshops and put on an participatory exhibition in an empty shop in Derby city centre BUT support/funding has not been forthcoming. It's been a tough decision but 3 years is a good run. 

A group of DD regulars will be taking Draw Derby forward into 2025, same name, same time, same place!

drawing in derby - july 2024

Eighteen people gathered to draw in Derby on the last Saturday in July - see them in action below, plus the mornings sketchbook throw down!!! 

Book your free place for our August gathering here 🖐️✏️

a morning in may - draw derby

A snapshot of a Derby morning in pencil, graphite, ink, collage and paint - thank you for permission to share folks!

Book your free place for our June gathering on Eventbrite here 🖐 ✏️ 

care collaborations - walking skirt

The Walking Skirt hangs folded over a wooden coat hanger in my living room/studio, a reminder of miles walked along paths that are the closest to what I imagine home must feel like, and where I am most at home in my body.

  

It was a warm spring day in early April for the final (10th) walk of the project and reaching the summit of Masson Hill I wandered into a chorus of Skylarks singing high above my head and filling the air with melody. I felt very small and that felt very good.  

The Care Collaborations are an element of artist Ruth Singer's ACE funded Cultures of Care project. It has been an absolute pleasure to develop this work within Cultures of Care and I hope to share more this summer - watch this space.

walking skirt

It is almost 6 months since I began to consider 'Care Collaborations', a strand of Ruth Singer's Arts Council Funded Cultures of Care project. Ruth states, "Over the next couple of years I will be looking at under-explored stories of care of people, places, objects. I'm interested in how artist activities and creative practice contributes to a culture of care".

I'm taking 10 walks in the handmade ric-rac and ribbon Walking Skirt, click on the link to learn about the inspiration for this process and timeline of the walks. 

The closing sentence of J B Firth's preface in the Highways and Byways in Derbyshire (London, February 1905) inspired the production of these cards. Firth wrote, "Nor would I forget to thank the many chance and momentary acquaintances whom I met on the roads and in the fields of Derbyshire and, perhaps, wearied by my questioning curiosity".

I'm hoping a momentary acquaintance will comment on my skirt on the roads and in the fields of Derbyshire, if/when they do, I'll give them this card.