''Having
trained in fine art at St. Martins and the Byam Shaw in London, I
made abstract paintings and then landscapes when I moved to my present
studio at Hurstone in Somerset, but I lost the sense of challenge
and needed to find my own images. I made some large wire and paper
suspended figures that told the story through the process of making
by the way that they related to the unconscious. I now needed to ease
the over personal connection to the work as well as losing some of
the semi-realistic figure while still keeping the female form. I had
always referred to this work as 'wrapped figures' and now the idea
of the 'wrappings' began to interest me. I always loved dressing up
and stories where the dress is evidence of transformation. I love
clothes, old clothes, and the memory associated with cast off dresses.
I started to make suspended forms as dresses, the dress being the
skin that had absorbed the life of the body once inside them. I work
quite intuitively, the process of the making often dictating the development
of the piece. None of the dresses can be worn.''
The
shoes and corsets were a natural progression.