Q: What are your future shows or projects that you are working on?

A: I want to do more outdoor exhibitions! I’m currently looking into showcasing an outdoor art exhibition in Northern Ireland, where I’m originally from and I have a few exciting projects lined up in London near the end of this year which I can’t say too much about yet. I do want to have more exhibitions in Ireland too though!

Q: What made you want to be in the creative industry?

A: It sounds madly cliché and I feel like a lot of creatives might also say this but I’ve always wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. My dad is creative and when I was younger I used to watch him drawing in the evenings. I would sit behind him with a sketchbook and copy every mark he was making. Art has always been a massive part of my life and I never envisioned myself doing anything else.

Q: How do you navigate the line between maintaining the line between your authentic voice and meeting audience or market expectations?

A: I feel like this is a hard but interesting question because there can be a big gap between artwork that is commercial and the artwork that you want to make. For me personally, a non-negotiable is that I never put artwork out there that I’m not 100% happy with. As long as I’m happy with the outcome, everything else is secondary. I also feel like you can also do both. I do commissions and I also make art that I personally want to do. It’s not for everyone but it works for me. It’s important that you make art for yourself and most times if it’s authentic and it comes from a place of passion, people feel that in your work and it ends up resonating with a lot of people too.

Q: Your goals in 5 years-time?

A: I want to be able to work for myself full-time. I’d love to be able to split my time, making my art and then also hosting workshops/art classes. I love working with people, and painting on your own 24/7 actually gets quite lonely so I don’t think I’d want that to be my only job- I always want to have multiple jobs. I’d love to have the balance between doing my own art and sharing my art skills with other people. I’d love to open a gallery and host art workshops for kids and adults as well as doing my own art. The dream!

Q:How has your practice changed over time?

A: 4 years ago at university I never painted so my practice has changed quite a bit in the past few years. I used to love painting before I went to uni, I loved it so much that I studied painting at Camberwell but when I started my painting degree I ironically never painted. I tried out every medium but paint which is kinda ironic, I think it was because I felt like I’d already explored painting a lot. I mostly used sculpture and installation as I felt like it fitted my works theme at the time. I started to get into painting again during covid as It was most accessible to me and then when I left uni I’ve just been painting ever since and I really found love for it again. I still love conceptual, ideas-based art though and I like poetry too.

Q: How do you feel social media affects your work ie. scale, your process / feeling the need to document your process?

A: I feel like social media has affected my work in a positive way if anything. I’ve been given quite a few opportunities through social media that I don’t believe would have come about if I wasn’t so present on it. It is so important how you choose to document your work though- I wish I was better at it and had a better camera! It’s game changing to be good at advertising yourself and your work and something I want to work on. I see artists Instagram feeds like an online virtual gallery!

Q: How do you handle a creative block?

A: Going to exhibitions and galleries really helps to inspire me when I am having a creative block or feel lost in which direction I want to take my work. Also journaling and making intentional time for thinking/ coming up with ideas. Ideas don’t really tend to just come to me while I’m out shopping (unfortunately) I have to be intentional about sitting down to think about what I want and where I want to go with my practice. I always write stuff down in a notebook too, that’s helpful!

Q: A subject matter you would like to discuss

A: GCSE and A-Level art. Maybe seems like a bit of a rogue subject to discuss but school art honestly baffles me. It needs to be completely re-jigged/ scrapped and re-thought in my opinion. I remember my teacher literally encouraged me to use the light box and trace, she only wanted me to get a good grade and it seems as if it’s the same with a lot of other schools, I saw that from teaching GCSE and A-Level art students over the past few years. So many students who are so talented are being put off doing art as a job because of A-Level art- students think they need to spend 5 million years on an art piece for it to be good and that isn’t true!

Q: Favourite career moment you have had so far?

A: The Peckham Levels outdoor exhibition- I’ll never forget that whole week of setting up the exhibition with my dad. I kept thinking the whole time, I’m seriously going to remember this week forever it was just such a core moment. It was such hard work but an amazing memory that I’ll never forget.

Q: What is your favourite Quote? And why?

‘’If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you’ll see obstacles.’’ I have that one screenshotted on my phone and feel like it’s really true. Another creative said to me last year that they believe in themselves so much that it makes everyone else also believe in them and their dream. If you believe you can’t do it then you most likely won’t!