In 2019 I travelled to Bristol to attend a conference in pre and perinatal psychology, with experts in the field from all around the world presenting the last 50 years of research and findings in the field. The conference was called Human Baby,Human Being.

The same year I started to study with two of the presenters. One, Cherionna Menzam Sills, became my supervisor and the other Matthew Appleton, my mentor of the past four years in learning about pre and perinatal birth imprints.

In 2020 I started studying at Leith School of Art during the pandemic. In the same years I lost both parents, acquired British citizenship after 30 years, emptied the family home, my work life transformed, went through menopause and my children, now nearly 24 and nearly 21 are just leaving home. A lot of change happening both at a personal level as well as a collective level.

I became fascinated by the creativity, resilience, and the mirror between the art I was creating and the backdrop of my life and what I was studying.

EARTH follows on from the backdrop of implantation, which was the in the backstage during the first solo exhibition. Implantation is when the embryo finds a safe space, where to embed itself in the endometrium and from there, grow. It is the space where the chance of survival is highest.

The enquiry in Earth: what is it that nourish that growth? In the Earth we are creating, in the womb that we are making our home, what do we choose to include? What goes through the adult cord that feeds us? What do we include or leave behind as we grow? Challenges, how do we face them? What is the environment around us?

EARTH is a celebration of creativity, resilience and being human.

I started making notes of moments of Presence : in nature exploring different media- drawing with pastels, painting with acrylics and oils, photography. I often choose to start and then see what the bio-intelligence has chosen to be drawn to. At times it is something that mirrors early cellular beginnings, at times, a nourishing landscape at times something resembling umbilical cords come to surprise me.

In the note taking, I include recordings of sounds- whether nature or market places and people talking, or buskers singing. Moments that catch the attention and touch a feeling in that moment for us to notice.

I am also devoting a part of the exhibition to an educational area about herbs and plants in nature that drew my attention over these years and that I studied in different forms, from drawing, to smelling, to sitting with them, to learning what to make with them. A section will be home remedies that feed a process of making that last months from one stage to the next and involve all senses. An example is calendula oil making, or salve, or nettle soup, or risotto and more.

Same as in ‘Finding Roots in Water’ I am writing a book to go along the Exhibition called ‘Amateur’, to celebrate the lover in us, as well as the one who simply does, without chasing perfection, that gets inspired and drawn to something and begins with moved by that inspiration to create. In Amateur I will share images of the work and recipes and stories.