I felt an earthy connection to a deep old knowing working with clay which intrigued me and taught me that I know far more than I ‘think I know’. Through the medium I established a way of thinking and working, but a change in circumstances determined a move away from clay. My potter’s wheel and kiln have been replaced by camera and computer as my current tools of expression towards self-realisation and understanding.

Usually when making a series of work I start with a fairly vague concept. Once my hands connect to a thread of thought, idea and image evolve fluidly, one being the stepping stone for the next and as the work develops, it seems to be pulled through from my subconscious.

I believe there’s an intention or energy which translates through the maker’s hands and resonates within a work or image - energy and matter, holding an idea and vibration in suspension beyond the constraints of words.

After being awarded Marlborough Living Cultural Treasure in April 2016 I spent two and a half years travelling in a camper van around Europe and Morocco. I filled myself up with pictures, thoughts, ideas and confusions which I continually empty out into images and string together clusters of words in an endeavour to make some sense of myself. I use these physical markers as a mirror to realise and evidence who I am at any point and, as with my ceramic work, these expressions have become my teachers and collectively document my life’s experience and evolving philosophy.