So true, which makes it slightly ironic to use it to start a section trying to say something about me and my creative practice, but it is a truth that is entwined with my practice and life.

An art career has been a late development: a choice after leaving primary school teaching for 20 years; a decision after my Mum died - an event which made me reflect on what was important and what my heart needed. Creativity, though, always found ways to be expressed in work and play.

A foundation year at Artpocket followed by a Postgraduate year, and now a continuing membership with the Artdepot NR3 artistic collective, has established this new direction. A group of tutors, fellow artists , family and friends have helped to address the doubts and fears and help me gain the courage and self belief to commit to this new path and share the joy of it with others.

For me, the natural world has always been a place of solace - a place where I feel most free, spiritually aware and present - so it is predominantly the starting point of my creative adventures. An enduring thread of addressing justice issues throughout my life meant it was inevitable I would become committed to discovering, learning about and embracing processes and materials that hold compassion for the other-than-human world.

Inspired by artists who express emotional intensity through their mark making and use their work to address internal emotional states or trauma, such as Joan Mitchell, Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois, I seek to explore the connections between the outer natural world and my inner emotional landscapes, with mark making and collage being the predominant language. I’m drawn to the overlooked, the unnoticed, the disregarded - not conventional beauty, but finding the beauty in the overgrown, chaotic and disintegrating. Nothing wasted is my repeating mantra.

As important as my own practice, is my desire to share the joy and the innate wellbeing and mental health benefits that being involved in creativity gift. I have facilitated courses and workshops as a tutor at Artpocket and for other organisations and groups in Norfolk, such as Tots to Teens, Broadland County Council; A to Better, Norfolk County Council; Norwich Cathedral Education; Freshly Greated; Treehouse Festival and Creative Arts East.

So come walk with me, where we can see and be and breathe.