space, place and the construct of home

2012 – 2016

I was born and brought up on the North-East coast in Marske-by-the-Sea near Redcar which is just outside of Middlesbrough. Like many people I have lived and worked in different locations throughout the country, as we have become a more mobile society.

I lived and worked in the South-West in a location just outside of Stroud – a place of mills, hills and valleys. Each day I walked my dog over the elevated topography of Selsley Common where I would gaze into the distance, look for my house and look further out across the River Severn to the Black Mountains of Wales. I would think of my day and the people, places and narratives that rooted me in this place and considered this place to be my home. Yet, without knowing or understanding the processes and actions involved, I had constructed a place where I felt a deep-seated attachment.

Towards the end of 2011 I secured a teaching and research position at Norwich University of the Arts and found myself living on the edge of the mediaeval city of Norwich. I knew very little of the City, East Anglia or this region and the task now was to find a new home, somewhere to live and work. Drawn to the sea it didn’t take long before I discovered the villages along the coast and this is where I settled to make my home.

This series of prints was made with that task in mind and represents a personal breakthrough with understanding practice-based research. I used my practice to help construct home and place from the space I found myself living in. Over a period of four years I walked, drew, read and made engravings about where I lived. I read research papers and texts which helped deepen my understanding of place and continue to inform and extend the way I make and think about my work and the way I address the notion of place and where I live.

As part of this process I work with the created and contested territories research action group (CRAG) at the Norwich University for the Arts where I am currently writing about the work I’ve made