Recently I was asked to complete an online 'interview' with an Art History student from the University of Kent. The questions she asked were good, as follows:
1)Has your upbringing and training had any effect on your work? If so, how?
My training as a fine artist has had an influence on my work and my upbringing in Canada has influenced my choice of subject matter.
2)What is it that first made you want to study art?
I was always interested in art and design from an early age and visited galleries and museums in Canada and abroad as a child.
3)What are the most fundamental changes you have seen in your art throughout your career?
I have moved from working primarily in the field of fine art to producing more mixed media and primarily textile-based work.
4)What do you feel has been your biggest achievement so far and why? And what has been your proudest moment?
I was delighted to be offered a touring exhibition with Cas Holmes in and around the South-East. I was very proud to have work exhibited at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto.
5)Which media do you most enjoy working with, and why? have any of the mediums you have used in your work posed any difficulties or challenges which you have had to overcome?
I really enjoy working with layers of fabric and binding them together with stitch to produce a new fabric. This work is difficult to present and it has been challenging finding the right kind of framing to present it well, but luckily I have a great framer in Sussex.
6)What is the most important thing you would like your students to learn from you? Have they helped your work to develop in any way?
The most important thing is for them to find their own strengths through hard work(!) and experimentation. They challenge and inspire me on a daily basis, through their ideas and comments.
7)Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I’m inspired by a diverse range of objects and experiences and the fabrics themselves. The same motifs and imagery have inspired me throughout my career, but I am constantly influenced by natural forms and man-made interventions upon them, in the environment.
8)Are the any artists, movements or theories in particular that have inspired you? If so, how?
Recently I have been looking at the work of various textile artists including Alice Kettle and I loved Anselm Kiefer’s work at White Cube in London.
9)Do you find that you are ever influenced in what you choose to create by todays audiences - for example, is the need to sell ever a deciding factor in what you choose to create?
Fortunately I find that people are drawn to different aspects of my work and often ‘fall in love’ with a particular piece. At Open Studios last year, there were three people interested in the same piece – sometimes this leads to a commission.
10)Which work or project have you most enjoyed working on, and why?
I have really enjoyed my collaborations with Cas Holmes, Sarah Salway and Jenifer Newson. It is great working with other artists and getting feedback from them.
11)Do you approach works in different ways depending on their scale? and how much of a role would you say form and colour play in your work and why?
I am often inspired by a piece of vintage textiles that dictates the size and scale of my work.
12)What messages do you hope to convey through your works?
My works are narrative and speak to viewers on different levels, they can be nostalgic or decorative with a history. By using recycled and vintage fabrics, this creates a patina or atmosphere that helps this process.
13)Do you hope viewers will share in your personal vision, or do you prefer your works to be fully open to interpretation?
Viewers may always interpret my pieces in their own way but they do seem to ‘get’ the essence of their meaning.
14)What are your aims and plans for the future of your art practice?
I am continuing my collaborations and exhibitions as part of them. I enjoy exhibiting locally and would like to expand on this.
15)Finally, if you could sum up your work in just one sentence, what would you say?
Mixed media textiles depicting the natural and man-made aspects of surroundings and experience – ‘little worlds’.
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I am continuing to work with Cas Holmes on our joint project. We get together monthly to generate new work for our joint exhibition in October and more importantly - for mutual support and idea-swapping! If we miss a session, we really feel it. She is including some of my work in her forthcoming book for Batsford on recycled textiles and exhibiting in the SEOS 'Shed Gallery' - more about that soon! 
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