"Camellia on Yves Saint Laurent Shirt" Artwork

In 1998 I graduated University with a BA in Visual Arts.  I loved studying art, especially when I spent a year completing my degree at The University of Maine, USA.  It was here where I found my footing as an artist, but it was also here where my art career came to a halt.   I had spent the majority of my time since graduating trying to earn money...but most importantly, trying to earn respect. I began working towards a career in mental health, which eventually became my primary and only career. Somehow I got caught up in all of this and found myself at a cul de sac. So in 2010 I quit my job and moved to Granada, Spain, to teach English. The move to Spain was necessary but very difficult; however, it had the desired effect and I began to see more clearly what I really wanted to do with my life, and how I could get there. I had no choice other than to become an artist. In Spain I learnt that looking, seeing, recording, and drawing, was my most important career, and that all the other careers which I had been pursuing would now supplement the development of my art practice. Whether I got paid was not the mark of whether this should be a career or not; I just had to do it, paid or unpaid. From this point on I made an agreement with myself; to start building up a body of work which would record my role as an observer, and provide evidence for my identity as an artist.