My practice today – spurred by issues of inequality, climate and environmental crisis – is more holistic enfolding permaculture, food growing and activism. The projects I am involved in currently are all collaborative, community based initiatives seeking, designing and implementing positive, practical and sustainable solutions to specific problems like food poverty and habitat destruction by connecting people, ideas and place. For instance; working with consumers and food growers to develop localised food networks and empowering countryside communities to reappropriate and re-vision upland grouse moors. My work is rooted in the three permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair shares.
I live in a small former colliery village in North West Gateshead and am deeply interested in The North as a situation – felt, formed and lived – through its particular landscapes (post-industrial, uplands, cities and moorlands), economies and cultures. I am curious about the relationship between place, language and tradition and how words and images can be used to both reflect and craft reality from visions of the past to regenerative cultures of the future. I am particularly drawn to the spaces and moments of magick and wonder in our everyday lives and how we connect through those with the human and non-human worlds around us. I believe that connection is key to everything.
