| Life's journey has a funny way of revealing itself when least expected. My decision to become an artist, was one of those moments in my existence when my gut instinct was running a marathon while the rest of my body was jogging to catch up! |
 | Looking back I think the seed was sown when my children started school, although I remained unaware of this until more recent years. I would often volunteer to help in the local Infants School, which my children attended. There was no doubt that the teachers considered me to have a natural talent for the creative; consequently I would often find myself working with the children on their art projects, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Every year at the Summer fair I would be called upon and persuaded to run a face painting stall to help raise some money for the school association. It was helping out at the school that eventually prompted me to take a teacher training course, which ultimately was to set me on the road to becoming an artist. |
| When my youngest child started school I decided it was time for me to add some different strings to my bow. I embarked on an Access course to complete the qualifications I needed to get me into teacher training college. I had chosen to take the course part time over two years. During the first year I took Art as one of my options, more for the joy of it than anything else, I'd always drawn and tended to have a creative eye. |  |
| What I didn't anticipate was how much I would enjoy the whole area that comes under the wide umbrella of Art. This became the turning point for me and the decision to venture into the Fine Art as a career became a short journey, from the first charcoal on paper to completing a degree in Fine Art. Consequently I finished my Access course and headed straight into a B-TECH Foundation course. |
 | The Foundation course was the tool that would either get me into the degree or not. It was an interesting year where I was lucky enough to touch on many art-related topics such as photography, sculpture, painting and textiles. All the subjects were exciting, and having a taster of topics every four weeks helped confirm the strong desire I had to specialise in Fine Art. At the end of the Foundation course the whole of the department had an exhibition within the college. |
| It was the first public showing of my work and I can only liken the exhilaration and nerves you feel to that of an actor before they go on stage! For me, it is one of the greatest and most nerve-racking experiences when you open up in a gallery and watch people walking around viewing your work. I instantly knew at that moment that I had made the right career decision for me. |
| Towards the finish of the foundation year I was lucky enough to receive a preferred entry into the Surrey Institute of Art and Design where I would complete my degree. The three-year course was an incredible time. The course had just turned modular, this meant that we did a great deal of theory as well as practical work and that we were set briefs to work to every four to five weeks. I spent the first eighteen months working in painting, then moved into sculpture for the last eighteen months. I can't say that I sailed through the whole of the three years with ease, no life changing decisions are ever that easy! However, every time I hit a difficult point I would take time out to collect my thoughts and bounce back having resolved whatever problem there had been. |  |
| After each module I was expected to have a complete or an ongoing piece of work that I could elaborate on to my peers. This was always a terrifying moment as you were left wide open to all and any criticism that might follow. However, the whole exercise of putting yourself up for rejection makes for a stronger determination to continue working towards your goals, in all areas of life. |
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Eighteen months after the Foundation exhibition, I was invited to take part in my second exhibition. The students organised the whole event from the initial drawing up of the plans, to installation. The exhibition was held at Whiteleys of Bayswater, in London. The atmosphere was charged with excitement and confirmed once again the reason I had chosen to be an artist.
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The end of my degree saw yet another exhibition and private show, which was held in the university Fine Art department. The exhibition was a great success, I had finished an enjoyable but hard three years of work and emotions were running high, not just for me but for everybody in the year. My family finally got to see the end results of all my hard work. It was one of the proudest moments for me, and a moment in my history that will always remain with me.
The process of university has been a fantastic springboard for me giving me the tenacity, determination and strength of character to pursue other avenues within art. Consequently, I have been able to fulfil some of my far reaching goals such as holding my own exhibitions and receiving commissions, the result of which has lead me down the exciting avenue of working on the Cameo magazine.
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I regularly teach Art to children who have opted out of the school system and are being taught from home. There is nothing that compares with the feeling of enjoyment that accompanies the uninhibited mind of a child, as they see their ideas come to life through the medium of art.
As well as the magazine and teaching, I am currently setting up a new scheme with a friend and colleague. The concept is to deal on behalf of other artists outside of London, bringing their work into the Capital so they become more acknowledged and accessible to the rest of the world - an opportunity that I would have welcomed when I first embarked on a career as a professional artist!
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