The Road To Mixed Media

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. I've been making textile art for over twenty years (not a lot if you say it quick). Painting, though, I didn't think I could do, and drawing was completely out of the question. But I did really want to do these things. But hey, if you ain't got it, you ain't got it, right?

Wrong, actually. After ten years in the wrong jobs, I had the breakdown from hell about ten years ago. Burnout is a dreadful thing; I spent nearly a year in bed, rarely able to get out, agoraphobic, weepy, exhausted... Eventually it became obvious that I wasn't going back to work, and I started to recover a little bit, and played with some fabrics. One day I had an incredible urge to paint, and decided that I'd buy myself some acrylics. They scared me to death, so I left them in the packet and made papier mache instead. Then, one day, I broke the paints out of the packet to colour one of the things I'd made, a papier mache sunflower magnet that was to be a gift for a friend. It looked Rather Nice...and I reckoned that if I could do that, I could paint On Paper. And so I did.

I ended up learning a lot about art in the years that followed, formally for a year in a High School (you can do that as an adult in Scotland, go sit in on a class if there's a place and the teacher is willing, it's a great way of getting a free qualification!), and then by myself... I started painting, first in acrylics, then in oils. Abstracts.

And that's what I'd been doing ever since. The depression is an ongoing illness, it doesn't go away, but it is under enough control for me to make art...or so I thought. After a crisis last year, I found a wonderful therapist, and started working through issues I didn't know I had using art to help me.

I'd always thought that mixed media was the most frivolous of mediums, and I was a Serious Person...downright depressed, even! Why would I want to make mixed media? But as I went along, I found myself drawn more and more to the idea of working in collage... and so I did. All the images on this page are my own work. And the more I've worked in this wonderful medium, the happier I've become...strange, really. I'm sure it's not just the art, you understand, but it does help!

Perhaps the motto for this should be...get happy, go mixed media! They say that a little of what you fancy, does you good...and I'm sure they're right. In my case, a little was great...but now I'm going for it in a BIG way!!!