PICTOREM GALLERY

With Both Hands

This series of work came about one day last summer.

During a walk along the beach I was drawn to everyone’s ‘beach set ups’. While secretly

taking photos of patterned towels and umbrellas, picnic spreads, plastic toys and rubber

rings, I started to think about how all those things got there, the thought and planning that

went into everyone being fed and watered, dry and warm and entertained, basically

everything that ensured a fun day at the beach was had by all. In that moment, I

recognised that the true subject of my practice is love: the invisible labour that underpins

shared experience, the hidden hands behind an event.

On returning to my role as an arts educator in September I found myself drawn to the

activities prepared outside Year 1 and Reception classrooms - the coloured fabrics, lego,

wooden blocks, drawing and collage, small plastic animals, artificial grass….. and I saw

this same care mirrored in the act of preparing an outdoor classroom. The thought,

planning, and creativity that make a school a safe and inspiring space. The same invisible

labour behind a school day that means everyone is going to be able to create, learn and

feel safe and valued.

Whether through art or teaching, my practice celebrates unseen gestures of generosity

and the quiet beauty of what is offered thoughtfully, and by hand, to others. The title of the

show speaks to both the hands that give and those that make—the hands behind the

gestures of love, as well as the hands that create the paintings themselves.

​