The Artist

My process usually starts with a brief and a stage, and from there I write that stage a story: a time, a place, a history, which then dictates the materials, textures, tones and palette that follow. Mood boards, site visits and long conversations with collaborators do the early work, but the real craft is learning to listen to the materials themselves once they're gathered, and to get out of the way. I am not the creator. I am the paintbrush used to create these spaces. The less I force an idea and the more I let the materials lead, the more a space holds together, often in ways felt more than seen.

What I want for anyone standing in one of my spaces is simple: to feel held and safe enough to step outside their own idea of reality, if only for a night. I think of the dance floor as an old, familiar ritual, the same instinct that once gathered people around a fire, and I find real healing in a floor that's been woven with intention.

The personal work, the wheatpaste murals, the poetry, are more solitary and confessional than the big collaborative builds. That side of my practice exists simply because I love to create, and there's a real freedom in making something outside of any process that ends in monetisation. The impermanence of a wheatpaste piece is part of that same freedom: if I make something I don't quite like, it won't be on that wall in two months, so I get to experiment with myself and my own psyche without the pressure of permanence. I enjoy stepping out of the driver's seat and marvelling at what comes through me rather than treating myself as the one actively creating it, listening more often than I'm making. I think of it as a deeply spiritual practice, though not the kind that looks spiritual from the outside: no white gown, no altar. It's something more paradoxical and anarchistic than that, but underneath, it's really just communication with something far greater than my perceived self.

If any of this speaks to you, whether it's a stage to build, a wall to paint, a one night event, or a story to tell, I'd love to create it with you.