My Story as a storyteller & poet
'Your daughter is something of a storyteller...'
I was five the first time a teacher said this to my parents. In my day book, I had described driving the car home after school. The teacher thought I was fantasizing. She was put out when my dad told her I had driven the car, albeit along a private drive sitting on his lap.
The second time, it was said by the headmistress of a new school. She held my entrance exam paper between finger and thumb and her tone was amused disapproval. I was a month short of my eleventh birthday but I could discern disapproval when I heard it. It was evident that she, like the primary school teacher before her, believed my stories were products of a precocious imagination... and one that should be taken in hand and checked... for my own good. After all, you just can't let a child get away with telling such tall tales.
My stories and poems arise from observations, always with a touch of magic and fantasy. I've been told some do set the shivers sprinkling down the spine.
My short stories are published as zines available in Ink & Quill book shop in Montrose and But & Ben books in Stonehaven. The cafe Redcafes also carries a few copies stashed by the till.
My poetry collection as hand bound, French-fold pamplets will be available to purchase from my store in October
My Story as an artist& maker
I started making my own clothes when I was eleven but have only recently taken to textile and fabric art recycling the scraps.
At school, my inability to do representational art and my preference for science dictated my education and career so it wasn't until I had children in mid-life that I (re-)discovered my inner artist and maker.
My children had no fear of making marks - the swirl of crayon was a galloping horse... squares and splodges were a face's features... and they said my scribbles and swirls were OK too.
Now I use ink as a meditation tool off-set against the strict discipline of kirigami or cut paper art. You can see my work in the gallery. Original cut art and abstract ink art prints are available to purchase.