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Artist Information

Biography

I

was born in London and worked as an IT consultant until 1998, when I moved to Oxfordshire and gave up full time employment to pursue my interest in art and particularly textiles.

I studied at Gloucestershire College of Further Education and University of West of England and began lecturing on a part-time basis for Gloucestershire College in 2003 in City & Guilds textile courses as well as HNC Stitched Textiles. I have a Cert Ed (FE) and CRB check.

Between 2006 and 2010, I worked on a number of science/art public engagement projects including a year as Artist in Residence for Diamond Light Source the UK's national synchrotron facility.

I have also worked with metal sculptor Paula Groves, providing designs for a number of pieces for her Bronze-Medal-winning stand at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Other commissions include shrouds for Bristol NHS Trust's Viewing Rooms (formally mortuaries), at Frenchay and Southmeads Hospitals.

For details of these and other work, see www.pocketmouse.co.uk.

I continue to lecture part time as well as exhibiting, working to commission and giving talks and workshops throughout the country.

Statement

L

iminality derives from the Latin limen meaning a threshold. It is a state of betweenity, a place between borders or states.

The original collection entitled "Liminal", explored the ambiguity and tension that exist in the boundaries between the fibres in woven fabrics. "Cocoon" is the place of disintergration and transformation. Examples from both these collections were exhibited as part of "Alice's House".

"Liminal" is a word and a state, that fascinates me and nowhere in literature is there a better starting point than Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland".

To enter the betweenity of Alice's Wonderland, you must first fall down the Rabbit Hole and follow the White Rabbit into a hall filled with locked doors! A tiny golden key fits only one which is so tiny that Alice can only peer through the opening to see the beautiful gardens full with flowers, fountains, and magical creatures.

Wonderland is a place dominated by doors leading to the curious houses of The White Rabbit, The Duchess or The March Hare. When one world disappears, the reader is transported through a portal into the next more curious situation.

Alice is a strange creature, constantly playing the adult and child in turn. At first emotional, crying so hard that she nearly drowns in her own tears and yet seemingly unperturbed by her encounters with speaking animals and a fiery dutchess.

Food and drink either shrinks or stretches her again and again as if looking in a funfair mirror, until she has no response to the Caterpillar's question "Who are you?". Time in this world is altered too, for the White Rabbit, who is constantly late, it shrinks, while for the Mad Hatter, who quarrelled with it last March, it stands still.

For me, the only unbelievable thing in this whole fantastic adventure is that it can only be a dream!

Images of Alice have been drawn over the years by such diverse figures as Sir Arthur Rackham, Mabel Lucie Attwell and many of the Surrealists such as Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Max Ernst. It has inspired ballets, operetta, pop songs, films and cartoons but none of the images conjured up in these works surpass the iconic drawings of Sir John Tenniel.

Exhibitions & Shows

  • Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot, "Alice's House" October-November 2012
  • Farfield Mill, Sedbergh, "Alice's House" November-December 2011
  • Mably, France, September 2011
  • Oxford Museum, "Curiouser and Curiouser" June-September 2011
  • Cornerstone Gallery Didcot, "Flora and Fauna" March-April 2010
  • The Ignition Gallery, The Joiners Shop, Chatham Dockyard, November-December 2009
  • Farfield Mill Arts Centre, Sedbergh, September-November 2009
  • Weaver's Gallery Ledbury, July 2009
  • Mill Arts Centre Banbury, July 2009
  • The Motto Project: Cloth is my Bread, Kendal, September 2008
  • Bluecoat Gallery Liverpool, September 2008
  • Mill Arts Centre Banbury, 2008; 2009
  • Contemporary Texiles Fair, Landmark Arts Teddington, March 2008
  • Vale & Downland Museum, Exhibition of Local Artists, 2008; 2009; 2010; 2011
  • Banbury Museum, December 2007
  • Harrogate Fashion and Embroidery Show, October 2007
  • New Arts Centre Chatham, July 2007
  • Festival of Quilts, August 2006
  • Said Business School, Oxford, May 2006
  • Harrogate Fashion and Embroidery Show, October 2005

Press, Media & Publications

  • 4 Shires Magazine, Artist of the Month, February 2010
  • Stitch Magazine, "Bras to Bags", February 2010
  • BBC Radio Oxford "Arts and Culture Show", 27th January 2010
  • BBC Radio Oxford "Afternoon", 12th January 2010
  • Sky - Countryside Channel, "Talking Threads", September 2009
  • Wellcome News, "Designs for Life Update", April 2007
  • Oxfordshire Life, "Life's Rich Tapestry", Featured Artist February 2007
  • BBC Oxford, "Oxford Inspires", Radio Interview, 2007
  • "Trends in Textile Technology", Hazel King, 2007
  • Embroidery "Designs for Life", November 2006
  • Oxfordshire Limited Edition, "A Stitch in Time", August 2006
  • Workbox, "Machine Embroidery with Anne Griffiths", Februrary 2005
  • The Encylopedia of Machine Embroidery, Val Holmes, 2004
  • The Textile Directory, 2003-2005