EDUCATION 

In 1989 I left school and went to Edinburgh College of Art, which I loved and thought I had really begun my life as an artist. Undiagnosed neurodivergence and some deeply problematic teaching (or lack thereof) meant I unexpectedly didn’t pass 1st year and had to take a year out to take 3 re-sits. This was devastating to me and while I easily passed 2 of the 3 re-sits, mental health issues determined that I would not complete the third resit and return for the 2nd year.

After several months of being in what I now know was burnout, and then another few months of working in Edinburgh pubs, I applied to go to Edinburgh University to study English Literature, and was accepted.

QUALIFICATIONS

1991 – 1995 – English Literature (MA Hons) Edinburgh University

2000 – 2001 – PgDip Library and Information Studies, Strathclyde University, Glasgow

DO-IT-YOURSELF ART COLLEGE

Since I began making art again in 2013 I have taken various workshops, classes and mentoring. They include:

Andrew Paterson, Abstract Painting and Spirituality – twice, 2014 and 2019 – Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

Susie Wilson, Making Artist’s Books, 2015 – Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

Claire Heminsley, ‘On your marks….get set….GO! 2016 – Off The Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife

Kenneth Le Riche, Painting the Figure in Oils, 2018 – Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

Janet Melrose, Palimpsest, 2020 – weekend workshop at her studio in Crieff

Brigid Collins:

Making Artist’s Books 2016 – Inver Art Studios Inverkeithing

Making Artist’s Books 2018 – Leith School of Art Edinburgh

Practice Development 2019 – Brigid’s studio in Edinburgh

Poems and Plants, online during Covid lockdowns – 2020-2021

Fraser Taylor:

Summer School 2017 – Off the Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife

Drawing as Impulse 2019 – Off the Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife

Crit Sessions 2022 – Off the Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife

Crit Session 2024 – Off the Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife

Marissa Stoffer, Botanic Ink Making, 2021 – Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

Mentoring with Becky Beasley, 2023 (funded by Create:Inclusion, Creative Scotland)

Mentoring with Brigid Collins, 2024 (funded by VACMA grant)

Writing workshop with Rebecca Sharp, 2024 (funded by VACMA grant)

Online writing workshop with Kate Fox, Neurodiversity and Biodiversity, 2025

LEAD ARTIST ROLE

In 2013, after leading an art club at my local primary school for a couple of years, I co-created and was a co-director of a community arts CIC. We ran local art fairs, led workshops and ran a gift shop stocking local artists and makers. My main roles were organising five art fairs, running the website and social media, and project designer and lead artist on several community participatory projects.

The Place Where We Live, 2015. Children in P4 recreate their daily walks to and from school and the shops and to friends and family by drawing what they remember seeing on the way. These small bright drawings are attached upright on a drawn map of the town, creating a 3D riot of colour and images, their memories and imaginations made real and shared. 

Fraser Avenue Treasure Hunt, 2016. Children in P5 take out school cameras to Fraser Avenue which is midway through being demolished, soon to be re-built as new housing. They have a treasure hunt to follow: something yellow, something old, something ugly and so on – and they can also pick up finds to later create tableau with . In class they cut strips of their wonderful photographs and weave them into a new street to walk along, bringing their memories of that day and the flats as they were into the future. 

The Inverkeithing Memory Group, 2016/2017. A group of adults of all ages who have lived on Fraser Avenue at some point of their lives, some temporarily and some for many years. They talk and reminisce about things that have happened in the street and in the whole town. Using photographs, objects and their own pieces of art and craft, they created a cloth book, which is kept in the permanent collection at Inverkeithing Library and Museum. 

Inverkeithing Heritage Regeneration, 2020/2021 – during the first few months of Covid, 2020, a group of adults and young people of various ages responded to archeological and historical finds about the area as it welcomed regeneration funds to improve its historical landscape. From detailed pen drawings of the streets and buildings to an installation in a park about the witch hunts, everyone brought something fascinating to the project. A small drawing of a missing Janus head which had once been attached to the town hall roof was chosen as a motif for information boards and carvings, and a new Janus head was carved from wood to perch on the roof once again. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Solo Exhibition – Eye of the Storm, 2019, paintings installed at Woodlea Farm, nr Dunfermline, Fife. A body of work about the trauma I had experienced when badly hurt during a tourist boat collision off the coast of Anstruther in 2016, and the uncanny, strange and spiritually charged nature of these experiences and their aftermath. This accident has left me permanently visually impaired and motifs of eyes appear often, sometimes unconsciously, in these works.

Solo Exhibition – Across Their Many Islands, 2023, Glisk Studio and Gallery, Burntisland, Fife. A body of work created during a research and development period funded by Create:Inclusion, based on theoretical and poetic written works by autistic authors, with key theories such as the double empathy problem and monotropism, a series of mixed media works and watercolour and ink paintings. As part of this period I experimented with making inks made with plants foraged from marginal urban land.

Group Exhibition – Neuk Perspectives, Patriothall, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – 4th – 28th July 2024

Group Exhibition – Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Summerhall, Edinburgh – 9th – 27th October 2024

FUNDING AWARDS

Create:Inclusion funding awarded by Creative Scotland 2022 – 2023 – research and development period – creation of a body of work, practice development, one to one mentoring with Becky Beasley. Culminated in an exhibition of works and findings at Glisk Gallery in Burntisland entitled ‘across their many islands’.

VACMA award from Creative Scotland and Fife Contemporary, 2024 – one-to-one mentoring with Brigid Collins, participating in a 3 part writing workshop with Rebecca Sharp

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Gallery – Creation of Glisk Studio and Gallery Space.

In 2019 I took on a pair of shops on Burntisland High Street. The building was in need of some real basic care but I enjoyed the challenge. Previous to me the tenant had run a shop based on spirituality, with items such as incense and buddhas. I felt like by taking it on to create for myself a studio based around my visual impairment needs and a gallery space I was creating my own spiritual place. I loved designing and creating the space which many have found to be peaceful and contemplative. It was finally ready just before first Covid lockdown in 2020, and it was an oasis for me to escape to and work in private, and then once non-essential businesses could open again in autumn 2020 I was able to run it as a small business, to supplement my art practice. For nearly two years it showcased the work of a curated selection of artists and makers, then in spring 2022 I changed it’s function to an exhibition space for hire by proposal and it hosted 20 exhibitions, pop-ups, open studios and workshops, before I decided to move on in 2025.

Curation – an exhibition at Glisk entitled Subtext, 2022 featuring a selection of work by a variety of artists working with text and/or book forms.

COLLABORATIONS

THE WITCH KNOWE PROJECT

2020-2021

Growing out of the Inverkeithing Heritage Regeneration, 2020/2021 a group of artists from Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Dalgety Bay and Burntisland developed work in response to discovering that Inverkeithing had an unusually high number of accused witches, who were tried and murdered. There is a park in Inverkeithing called Witch Knowe Park which was possible close to where the accused would have been hung. Each artist was free to be influenced in any way they chose by the historical evidence of this period of European history. We held a crit session at Maker in Inverkeithing, the hub of Inverkeithing Arts Initiative (2014-2022) where we shared work with each other following crit protocols inspired by Liz Lehrmann. It was a wonderful experience and we continue to discuss re-animating the group and exhibiting our findings to the public.

Untitled ‘Black and Red’ acrylic on board, shown as part of a solo exhibition Eye of the Storm, 2019