I am obsessed and inspired by Frida Kahlo, Mexico, idols flight and love. I lived and traveled in Central America for a year 20 years ago and it was here that I was first captured by textiles, pattern and colour.
i make joyful mosaics, textile hangings and sculptures and embroideries using an eclectic collection of images, patterns, china, birds and figures that are either glued or stitched. I am a real cuckoo for colour and pattern and love rummaging around in car boots and antique shops for my finds. My work is very personal and is often a expression of something that i am personally going through or struck by.
I now live in West Cornwall with my sculptor husband, Michael Chaikin, and two beautiful daughters, Lola and Florence. We live on an old farm and you will either find me creating on my own in my studio alongside the voices of radio 4 or in a group as it feels very right to stitch with other women. I get a profound and extremely satisfying sense of ancestors and female lines through my work.