About Me and My Work
I was born in the Phillipines and grew up in Hampshire, southern England.
I come from a creative family of artists, jewellers and woodcarvers.
My Art Foundation was at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design
(Farnham, Surrey), where my brother Chris taught me.
Told that I had to specialise for my Degree course, I chose Jewellery Design, which I studied at
the University of Central England (then Birmingham Polytechnic).
I designed and made jewellery for many years and exhibited in the UK and abroad,
but always felt artistically constrained by that discipline and was really always a frustrated
textile artist.
On discovering
feltmaking,
my
initial art work
was extremely colourful, but only semi abstract, freed from the constraints of making
jewellery, where it is difficult to use colour easily.
Felt making is the perfect medium for me, since I can either be very imprecise -
letting the medium control the design - or can immerse myself in a particular design and exercise as
much control as if I were almost 'painting' with the fibres.
Over the last few years, I've become interested in creating
'Floating' felts,
trying to make the pieces as thin as possible - almost transparent.
When framed by sandwiching between sheets of clear acrylic the light can penetrate the piece, giving it an ethereal,
almost-not-there quality.
If hung slightly away from the wall, they appear to be floating in space - and the eye of the viewer isn't constrained by the traditional rectangular frame.
I've been inspired by many of the treasures found at the Victoria & Albert Museum, especially the
mediæval enamel and gold caskets, tapestries, coloured Roman glass inset with gold, damascening
work (inlay of gold and silver into iron and set with semi-precious stones) and 18thC brocade costumes.
I like contrasting gold or silver with the matt wool and, in some cases, I like the designs to be slightly hidden, or sandwiched between fine layers of wool.
I also incorporate other fibres - in particular silk, but also mohair wool, flax, viscose, cotton, and trilobal nylon.
The designs often come about by ‘playing’ with the fibres, or starting off with an idea and seeing where the fibres take me.
I also light these
abstract floating felt pieces from behind, to turn them into
wall lights
(producing an almost 'stained glass' effect).
Several examples of these
'
Art Lights'
are available for sale on
1-art-1.com.
My most recent art lights involve using slim uv tubes hidden in the frame, to highlight uv-reactive fibres in the piece.
The resultant effect is really stunning.
See
Burning His Roses
Alongside this, I am working on an extensive range of
pop-culture and BritArt-inspired
'conceptual' work
- some of which is shown on this site.
Some pieces are
floating felts and some are more ‘solid’ pieces, which are framed conventionally.
My creative process often starts with an idea from a song title,
or just playing around with a cultural icon, or some ideas in my head - such as
Me
and its companion piece
You,
It’s Raining Men (from the Weather Girls single)
or
Kiss Kiss (from Holly Valance’s debut No 1 hit).
Currently, I’m busy on a whole series of
It’s Raining pictures - cows, money, cats & dogs, etc.
As well as the rich prehistoric and mediæval history of Dorset,
I have also been inspired by places I've visited around the world,
including Morocco, Central & South America, Thailand and India.
India holds a particular fascination for me - the motifs they use in their work and
the fantastically bright colours in the textiles and embroidery.
I've been there several times, including a very long trip with my young sons
and my husband,
Andrew Green, who is
writing a book about our experiences there.

I moved from London to West Dorset,
shortly after our twin sons, Arran and Fingal,
were born and now live in the artists' enclave and picturesque village of
Abbotsbury,
with a view of the sea to add further inspiration to my work.
Our sons are educated at home by us.
My husband
Andrew
has designed and created this website and my main site,
www.1-art-1.com -
including extensive
search engine optimisation work on both sites
- as well as working with me on the digital imaging and
publicity for my work.
My studio gallery is open to the public all year round.
For further developments in my work,
or, better still,
(your details will
never be passed to anyone else without your express permission).
For
or
,
please
with your requirements.
Watch this space ....
Take a walk up the stone-lined alleyway to my
studio gallery ...
back to
images, text and
DT3 4JR, UK