I am currently developing a new body of work that explores attitudes to ageing. Based both on my own personal experience and on wider research this work explores how it feels to age, how we respond to ageing family and friends, and questions societal responses to a population which is living longer. Most of us will live into old age yet there is often an unwillingness to face or to plan for what this might mean for us, or to talk about how we feel with those around us.

Memory Quilt 2020-21

Cotton quilt with hand stitch, free motion embroidery and ink

130 x 140 cm

Memory Quilt explores how threads of memory become confused and lost as brain cells wither and neural pathways are interrupted.

Do particular memories define us? Which ones will stay and which will go? When it no longer makes sense to seek for sense how should we approach communication?

Shackles 2021

35 x 35 x 18 cm

Mixed media

Can memory loss offer such gifts as a release from past pains or current overload? When we can only live in the present, there can be a freedom to experience it more completely.

Is today the last time I will know who I am? 2022

Multi layered cobweb felt and hand stitch

35 x 35 x 35 cm

As loved ones age we dread the day when they no longer know who we are. But what does it feel like to look in a mirror and not recognise that the person you see is yourself?

Pray, do not mock me 2022

Free motion embroidery and organza

30 x 30 x 150 cm

When Shakespeare’s King Lear meets his daughter, Cordelia, towards the end of the play, his mind is in tatters and he struggles to recognise her. The words of his touching speech spiral downwards in this piece as he tries to find meaning and dignity in a disintegrating vortex.

Frailty and Resilience (a game for life) 2022

57 x 57 cm

Pen and ink

Which factors affect a person’s ability to live well through the changes which happen as we age? What can we do as individuals, as loved ones, as communities and as a society, to make life the best it can be for this ageing population?

Life courses / Allostatic load (work in progress) 2022

Installation 1 x 1 x 2 m

Hand woven natural fibres

As we age, our ability to cope with and recover from life events changes. We are encouraged to keep our minds and bodies healthy, to get out more, to maintain social contact. But not everything is within our control. We have weaknesses and strengths which find their origins much further back in our life course and these, combined with our current circumstances, affect our ability to bounce back and live as well as we can.