Background – in detail

Me aged about 6 years with my beloved one eyed cat, Smokey

“My family was totally dysfunctional when I was a child. I couldn’t relate to my peers. It wasn’t my happiest time. I spent my time at school dreaming of my escape to a different life.”


Childhood

I grew up in a small house with a big garden full of birds. I wonder where they have all gone. Part of the reason why I was drawn to taxidermy is that it gives me an opportunity to provoke the viewer to ask the same question, to explore their relationship with our wildlife and with animals in general.

My mum used to say, ‘the pine trees in the neighbours garden were like tenement blocks for birds’. At dusk they’d bristle with birds, settling down to roost, enthusiastically discussing the day.
I notice how rare this is now due to the lack of places for birds to roost. Those pine trees have long been cut down and replaced with a trampoline.

My parents relationship was turbulent, my escape was our garden or my imagination. I’ve made things for as long as I can remember and loved exploring the possibilities offered by new materials.

I’ve always been interested in nature and attracted to the unusual and strange, a love of museums, graveyards, old houses, keepsakes, and sentiment. I’ve been a pescatarian since I was 14 years old.

As a child I was painfully shy. After my parent’s messy divorce when I was 11 years old, I got on a mission to change. By the age of 17, there was no stopping me. No matter what, I was going to work in the Arts. My first interest was in fashion design after a childhood spent attached to a sewing machine that belonged to my mum, who was a keen seamstress. It led to me winning an award for my A-level collection from a television design talent show judged by Jasper Conran. It also made me realise that the conventional fashion world was not for me.

And so my interest in costume design was born.

Finding my way…


Theatrical Design at Wimbledon School of Art, later transferring to Birmingham Poly.

I found the tutors on both courses either unsupportive or incompetent but still learned and grew immensely during my time as a student. Although it was a particularly challenging time of my life I finished my degree with a 2:1 and no idea what I wanted to do next. After a stint in the costume department of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon, I knew I wasn’t destined for conventional theatre.

After completing a few short-term contracts I realised that between the Thatcher government and the then archaic practices of Equity, regular work in theatres was going to be difficult. My solution was to continue free-lance costume-making where I could. I set up a Vintage Fashion stall in Birmingham and bought a truck to live in, it’s van life now, but then it was something very different.

I travelled the U.K and Europe in a variety of vehicles and trailers, collaborating with other nomadic creative types. This led to lifelong friendships with some of the most talented people I know. They’ve run areas at Glastonbury Festival like Downlow, Lost Vagueness, The Park and Shangri-La and have been responsible for creating ground breaking international work. I was lucky enough to become part of an amazing international creative community. It is also what led me to the Circus.


And then…


I got my first break with Mike Wright, a trapeze artist. Mike still teaches at Circomedia in Bristol. He took me on as his flyer for the Flying Falco’s. After an intensive period of aerial training in Birmingham, I did my first tour with him. What was then known as Circus Space attracted me to London where I trained along with time at Jacksons Lane. There I met Pam McCrea and formed a doubles theatrical aerial company ‘This Way Up’.
We performed at festivals, corporate events and productions all over the UK and Europe. We had a commercial and unconventional body of work. Pam and I were lucky enough to gain a subsidised place on a ‘Perfectionnement Professionnel’ course at the French circus school CNAC, which took our work to a new level.

My adventures in the air shaped my future opening many doors, I’m eternally grateful for the experience.


Sands Films – from aerial harnesses to assisting the Director

 worked for Sands films in 1996/7 on the Nutcracker, as a rigging consultant, and then 3rd A.D. and again in 1999/01 on The Children’s Midsummer Nights Dream as Second Unit Director. I gained a huge amount of experience working on aspects such as Foley, production coordination, cast support, creating bespoke rigging, assisting the Casting Director to bring in circus performers, setting up training areas, and many aspects of post-production.  This amazing opportunity came from Director Christine Edzard who is a truly unique and generous soul.  I will always treasure my time there. 


To find out more about my work history see my C.V. here