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I've always been interested in art, even as a small child. The paints and pencils were always out and art filled the fridge door on a regular basis. From the age of about 17, I decided that it was where my heart lay and attended an arts foundation at the Cleveland College of Art and Design in England.
From there, I went to the University of Ulster where I specialised in Ceramics. Art has been a constant companion, I can't remember one single event that really stood out that made me think that it was the life for me. I think it's more of an accumulation of doodling in sketch books, scraps of paper drawing and painting things I could see and images that popped into my head. Having creative freedom is where I am now, I'm lucky that I can pick and choose the medium I want to work in, blending the subject matter appropriately to medium.
I think from my college days, the biggest influences and impressions made on me were my peers, one thing about college is the innovative way people would discover new ways of creating work, that freedom is rare and sometimes undervalued. I've been to numerous exhibitions and in a way collectively they have all had an impact.
When I left college, I became a Jewellery Designer in Southampton for a family Jewellers which led me away from Art as a career. As I became more confident in sales I ended up following a path in retail management. I think that break from art was good for two reasons 1) it gave me a keen grounding in business and the practicalities of running a business 2) the time away from Art made me hungry for it again. I came back to Northern Ireland and studied stonemasonry developing my stone carving skills along the way. At the end of that course I was invited to start teaching ceramics on a part time basis at North West Regional College which has afforded me the opportunity to start a business for myself.
