As an artist from a working-class background, with a parallel career in law and politics (born out of both economic necessity and a commitment to human rights); my work is a direct response to the social, political, and historic/ cultural landscapes that shape our lives. I grew up in council housing and relative poverty. My maternal Irish great-great-great grandparents came to England at the time of the Irish famine in the 1840s. They travelled from Newport in County Mayo (one of the hardest hit areas) and settled in Church Stretton in Shropshire. Their circumstances are unknown, other than what the record tells us of the Great Famine and displacement of people who were poor, landless, and Roman Catholic. Subsequent generations were part of the Industrial Revolution – working on the construction of the railways, and in building trades. My maternal grandfather was a master builder in demand across the country for his skills, e.g. building tall chimneys.
My maternal great-grandmother was born into abject poverty in the Scotland Road area of Liverpool. She later moved to the infamous area known as Little Ireland in Manchester. My grandmother’s father and grandfather had menial jobs as a driver and dock labourer and may have spent time in prison for the theft of copper wiring from the Manchester Docks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my maternal grandmother who grew up with profound neglect, not knowing her father and abandoned by her mother – rejected her Irish antecedents. A link was broken that can now only be transcended through art.
My paternal Scottish great-great grandfather was a marine engineer and diver who worked on the construction of the Forth Railway Bridge and the Manchester Ship Canal. He came from Greenlaw, in Berwickshire. His ancestry may trace back in part to the Isle of Harris.
The dearth of information about my ancestors creates a gap through which I can explore my diaspora heritage, using myth, archaeological finds, illuminated manuscripts, early photographs of the Industrial Revolution and the squalor of poverty in Manchester. Painting allows me to approach subjects with a more intuitive, emotional lens, to explore themes of identity, belonging, loss, resilience, structural violence and social justice across different generations and epochs of history. Painting and drawing provide a boundless space for imagination, a contrast to the structured worlds of law and politics. This duality feeds my creativity, enabling me to bridge worlds, tell stories, and confront social structures through my practice. Art, for me, is a tool for empathy, reflection, and connection — an invitation to see, feel, and act.