As evidenced here, I’ve always had a love of photography.

As a kid, my imagination led the way and I loved to use my creative energy although I’d often feel a bit stuck with it when it came to completing school assignments, sometimes lost in daydreams, sometimes in trouble for being too chatty (queue the wait for AuDHD diagnosis many many years later). I ALWAYS loved to listen to music and to dance.

After all my studies were done I started working in the Scottish music industry. I worked as Artist Liaison at festivals and stadium gigs, local gig rep at grassroots venues and as Production Assistant at Regular Music. I worked for all the national promoters of the time - Regular, DF, PCL and Synergy, in various freelancer roles, along with Unique Events and Glasgow International Jazz Festival.

I went on to work in-house as the gig booker and promoter for Cabaret Voltaire, luckily at a time when music agents had Edinburgh on the tour map so we got to book many amazing acts who’d go on to be huge - Foals, Sia, Frightened Rabbit, Calvin Harris… and then at Electric Circus, a karaoke bar which is now part of Fruitmarket Gallery.

I’ve always wanted to support and champion grassroots arts. It’s a real joy to watch folks find their feet and grow in notoriety, getting to make their art for a living. But I think I was always a little frustrated at facilitating for others what I wasn’t really doing for myself. I’d always be quizzing the photographers at gigs about how to work cameras so it made sense that I ended up doing evening classes to learn to manually set a digital camera. Also, I was taking wee snaps on that little white plastic point and shoot camera in the pit at festivals, getting funny looks off the photo journalist lads with their big lenses.

Here’s me & Iggy Pop.

I went back to college while still at Electric Circus and got in the darkroom and studios. The boss and his daughter sacked my PR team without my knowledge on a rare weekend off and I decided to dive into studies a little deeper. The catalyst I needed to get stuck into something new.

And then I did the classic move of being pregnant by graduation time, moving from my beloved flat in Leith into a doer-upper near Portobello and starting working for myself all at once. Living near to Portobello, spending all my time with my son on the shoreline, feeling inspired by the light there and the beachy textures, the open horizon...

I then became a single mum a couple of years later and I’ve spent the last decade working on trying to manage the juggle of childcare, spending time with my son and working. I also rediscovered my own work around the time I became a solo parent, starting to work on self portraits as a way to process all the big feelings and confusion about the expectations placed on women, regardless of how they’ve been treated.

I started also making collages again and writing. The pandemic was a wild ride but mostly I enjoyed the time with my son and space for creative play. I did become a little militant about where I shopped, believing that all our decisions are political….this and a want to not lose small independent businesses where freelancers can have safe space to potter about and work, I launched The Elopement Society - the local elopement design assistance I continue to offer international and local couples today. Always looking to promote the grassroots creatives and find ways to into creative play.

A lot of 2023 was about healing loudly from past abusive relationships and medical trauma, using instagram, spotify and my writing as a sketchbook of ideas for regaining my autonomy, building a little absurdist world and finding safe spaces. Then 2024 was the year of showing the work that came from finding my voice. I took part in around 10 exhibitions and had some work published. I held 2 solo shows of my work and curated a well-received group exhibition for over 20 artists and makers. I sat onstage in front of around 100 people and spoke about using creativity as a way of healing difficult experiences.

This winter has been tough for my family with serious illness taking over. I’ve taken a little time to work with These Are The Days on her Brand Seasons workshop series to delve a bit deeper into where I want all these ideas to take me and how to share them with you. I feel alive in my creative energy, my brain is quieter with a camera in front of my eyes. I hope the rest of this year will bring more connection to like-minded souls and opportunities to keep building collaborations.

xx

Lockdown creative play - collage & cyanotypes made on the beach on our daily walk.

That time I organised a full free beach wedding, promoted by Bross Bagels and won by a pair of legends.

Some prints of my work on the vintage wallpaper of the house I accidentally (luckily) flipped when I became a solo parent. Around 2015.

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