"My artwork usually begins on a board which gives me the scope to both carve lines into it, which isn’t possible with a canvas, and also to mis-shapen it if I wish.  Then I start to layer up the textures, overlapping torn pieces of paper and fragments of card, using pastes, gesso, cotton, wire, string or nails to make each piece work.  I love getting lost in the texturing process, aiming to create an intriguing surface full of feeling, movement and hoping to evoke an emotional experience in the viewer, through how the materials fall on the board, both intentionally and through happy accidents. At some point I might then rip off certain textures which can add further depths, cracks and crevasses and add to the expression of the piece.  True life news clippings or accounts of lives from parish records from the 19th century might then be woven in amidst the layers."