I have always crafted and have tried many crafts over the years, glass painting, crocheting, junk journaling to name a few.
During lock down and when I was furloughed, I got into making junk journals. Some took weeks to make and others only a couple of days and I was very fortunate to even sell some locally.
When I returned to work after furlough, I didn’t have the same amount of time to spend making the journals and I was looking to channel my creativity, but it needed to be something that I could lift and put down again in a heartbeat as I have two children, Max almost 16 and Hannah aged 5 going on 15. I needed something that wouldn’t take up much space, so I decided to try coloured pencil art and I really enjoyed it although it was slow going and I’m not really someone that wants to wait weeks to see a significant difference in my work.
I was watching YouTube tutorials and it brought me to line art, and I thought I could do that and one of my first pieces was a line drawing of my house, which I was very pleased with. Some friends and family got me to draw their houses and I love it when I go to their houses and see my work hanging on their walls.
Line art led me to digital art, I was creating drafts of the houses on my iPad to eliminate paper wastage. After a few line arts I decided to try and add colour to my images and I loved the vibrant colours that I could achieve with my iPad, and it meant I could pick up my iPad when I had five minutes, all my colours were there and it didn’t cost me anything purchasing expensive coloured pencils, and I could resize my image to any size I desired, so it seemed like a win win scenario.
I decided to create an image with all the prominent local shops in my area (Ballyhackamore), I loved the colours, and my family were well impressed which encouraged me greatly. I then decided to try a Belfast image, and that is when Belfast 22 was born, earlier this year. I decided I would get some printed and see if anyone was interested in purchasing them. They were a great hit between family, friends, and the mums in the playground. And so, I have continued with my digital art, and I love learning how to achieve new looks and creating images in my style.
I know that not everyone will like my style, but I love it, it can be as detailed or minimalist as I want. Sometimes, I will do a more detailed image when I am really looking something to get my teeth into, and other times I will just do a single minimal image just for the fun of it.
On 19 July 2021 i was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I had my mastectomy on 6 August. I had 14 lymph nodes removed as well as my breast and 11 of them were cancerous. I had a course of chemo and with every course I ended up in the hospital because my white blood cells were too low, and I was prone to sepsis. After my chemo I had an intensive course of radiotherapy. While all this was happening, I was continually being scanned and we discovered that the cancer had spread to my liver. I then started a new course of chemo and three weeks ago my oncologist phoned me to say that the chemo wasn’t working and that the tumours, four or five in my liver had doubled in size and that he wanted to see me straight away. The following week I started a much more intensive course of chemo two weeks ago and I will continue to be scanned every three months to see if there is any change in the tumours.
This has all an enormous effect on my mental health and my art has helped greatly with this. I continue to create as often as I can and am grateful that I have been able to use my art and a source of therapy over this last year.
I am very grateful to all the people that have purchased my work, and for all the encouragement that I have received and look forward to progressing on this art journey.
