The initial starting point for my paintings/drawings is often a current or ongoing social issue; but it can also be something personal. However, these two strands inevitably weave in and out of one another and whatever my initial intention for the work, on completion it often surprises me and I think: ’Oh, so that’s what it’s about…’  Although an unexpected revelation is a very good outcome, it then becomes difficult for me to explain it. I can speak about the process of it’s becoming – my feelings, the mark- making, colours, layers, erasures, text- but that’s already in the past.  Now that I have become its viewer I am in a new, sometimes uncomfortable, position. However, my hope is always that other viewers will engage with it.

I am interested in representation and response. What does it mean ‘to represent’ someone/something when representation is only ever partial and subjective? How does the viewer decipher ‘meaning’ when both representation and meaning are such slippery concepts?

In 2019 while on a diploma course in Contemporary Portraiture @artacademylondon, I became interested in the waxwork lookalikes of celebrities at Madame Tussaud London. I have chosen to revisit this interest and the image I’ve put together – photocopies of my photographs of the waxwork faces – is a work in progress: the deceptive nature of representation.

Although at present my artwork is mostly drawing and painting, much of my previous work has been process- based, installation, and photography. (I was allowed to photograph Hijra persons at their community in Mumbai and later showed the photographs at a talk I gave at the Gender Institute at York University).

I have exhibited in group shows in London and the UK while having an evolving art practice alongside a professional career in teaching.

In 1997 I gained an MA (with distinction) in Contemporary Art Practice from Kingston University; earlier completed art studies were at Chelsea and Byam Shaw.