Of Line, Stitch, Fragment and Form
Artists Statement: My practice is grounded in the belief that creativity grows through process and relationships. As both artist and educator, I see teaching as a form of creative practice – one that nurtures trust, curiosity and shared experience. Most of my work takes place in participatory settings, with the studio becoming a place for collaboration and personal growth, where I am drawn to the small changes in energy, mood and movement that happen when working closely with materials and others. I embrace slowness, care and the sense of community that emerges through making together. I am particularly interested in the delicate tension between flow and control – between surrendering to the process and the urge to steer or guide it, how planning and intuition, vulnerability and freedom can exist side by side.
Whether working independently or facilitating workshops, I pay close attention to the non-verbal languages of creativity such as movement, patterns and forms, that reveal emotions and serve as powerful means of communication. At its core, my practice values process over outcome and sees creativity not as a skill for a select few, but as an essential human need that deepens our awareness of ourselves, others and the world around us. It is shaped by ideas of embodied experience and creative wellbeing, grounded in the belief that everyone – whether they consider themselves an artist or not – can find meaning, healing and connection through making.
Contextual Statement: This project started with the question: In what ways can participatory creative workshops facilitate, disrupt or reveal the experience of flow in art making? However, it evolved into how creative environments can support vulnerability, experimentation and connection and I began to see that flow doesn’t always show up as calm, peaceful concentration. I witnessed a gradual shift from hesitation and self-doubt to deep absorption, emotional release and moments of unexpected freedom as participants navigated the tensions that can both facilitate and disrupt a sense of flow in art making.
These observations underpin Of Line, Stitch, Fragment and Form, a series of four participatory workshops exploring flow states in art making using different materials and processes: mark-making, stitching, collage and clay. Held in my studio, each two-hour session included a project and workshop introduction, warm-up task, two self-directed making blocks and a 10-minute mid-point challenge designed to disrupt flow.
Documented through photography, observation and participant feedback, the project draws on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, Tim Ingold’s concept of thinking through making and Ken Robinson’s idea of ‘the element’ – where skill and passion meet. It explores how visual, verbal and behavioural indicators might suggest that participants are in a state of flow and investigates whether materials and processes shape this experience and to what extent flow can be observed by others.
An artist’s book, photography, workshop artefacts and field notes were shown at an open studio showcase. For the showcase, I deliberately avoided conventional display methods – clean prints, mounted and framed – as they would undermine the intention of the workshops. Instead, mark-making prints were mounted on clipboards, referencing my notetaking; stitching photographs were printed on soft cotton to reflect the intimacy of the session; collage images on acetate were hung in windows, allowing light to create multi-layered effects and clay photographs were mounted on the same clay-covered boards used in the workshops. These choices blended documentation with making and allowed the presentation to reflect how the art was made.
Participants volunteered without knowing the specific content of the workshop they were attending, while a written contribution to the artist’s book was provided by participating therapeutic coach Vidya Bellur. Professional photographer, Caroline Pocock, was commissioned to document the workshops and studio showcase.
Below: Workshop participants showing moments of absorption, frustration, joy and reflection.
Below: Documenting field notes was a key method for observing how flow might be experienced or disrupted and part of an ongoing reflective process that shaped how the sessions were facilitated and understood.
Below: Photo series showing one participant responding to a 10-minute mid-point challenge. Selecting and introducing challenges, then photographing responses helped to see and understand how restriction can enable flow.
Below: Artist’s Book displayed alongside key texts that informed the project and at open studio showcase.
Below: Open studio showcase held on 19 July 2025 at Sweet Faraday Studio, Redhill, Surrey, UK.
