My Story
I like learning about people and their stories and so here is a little snippet into my life.
Being brought up in the little creative town of Hebden Bridge, nestled in the valley of Calderdale has definitely had a huge impact on my expressive journey in life so far. Well, that and a dad who has the most incredible ideas that never fails to get me inspired, and a mother who loves a good creative project.
Looking back I have always been a dabbler in expressive arts. Things of beauty whether it be clothes, the doing my hair as a young girl to music and incredible art have always caught my attention. My journey through school had me participating in many dance, music and Theatre groups. I literally tried a bit of everything, I was (and still am) curious and totally up for exploring different art forms.
I played the cornet in the local brass band traveling around the UK and even did a tour around the Czech Republic, I was part of the local Theater group dancing and singing in the chorus of musicals like fame and charlie and the chocolate factory where, and yes this is a real story, I was a breakdancing Oompa Loompa, the only female one I might add, I performed dance shows at Disneyland Paris and the Trafford Center whilst at High School. Even then when I finished school and went to University I started volunteering at local community arts groups such as The Handmade Parade where I helped with costume making and became a stilt walker in the parades! I even facilitated my first arts and crafts tent at a youth event put on by young people for young people at the local park.
That curiosity that I had at school is still with me today. It’s a burning passion to express myself, be colorful, messy and adventure in different forms of art.
From school, I moved onto University where I studied Creative Arts & Events Management because all these colorful creatives surely needed help getting organized and putting themselves out there in the world. My goal was (and still is) to create a platform for creatives to promote themselves through. To show them off, to create a community, a network of colorful expressive, artistic people to inspire more people to make art too!!
Throughout University I traveled the festivals. I worked behind the scenes in a variety of roles from stage management, decor crews, traffic control, and working in children’s areas. I dressed up and did walkabout performance, I became a stilt walker, I hula hooped, I face painted, I made funky hippy festival wears and I partied till the sun came up, quite literally! It was incredible and I met so many inspiring people along the way.
Ahhh those days and adventures were sweeeet! but honestly, it completely burnt me out! After uni, I moved up to Cumbria with my partner in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by rolling hills and gorgeous woodlands I found myself soul searching, taking a moment to pause and reevaluate the direction I wanted to take. This is where I started my visual arts journey. Mandalas and zentangle became my meditation and I found myself creating and entering this absolutely delicious state of bliss, it was fun and freeing! This was the start of my soul searching adventure which led me onto finding my community of soul sisters, women’s groups & circles and deep diving in my being and the limiting behaviors and beliefs that were holding me back.
I journeyed the Spiral, an emotional clearing process that unlocks and releases years of emotions and beliefs locked into your body and anchored to situations, people and life events. The process brought up incredible amounts, and at the end of it more of my creative self came burning through. I have been deep diving in women’s work, emotional clearing, meditation, and wellness practices ever since.
The wellness practices I realized were transferable to my creative practice and so I fused the to together. Creating a journey of creative wellness for myself. A life-long journey. Ever exploring, expanding, and EXPRESSING.
I am here to share what I have learnt with you.
To inspire, create and nourish our souls.