I live and work in Orkney, where the North Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea, an island environment that shapes my life and my current work.

I'm an artist and author, originally trained in Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art and the Slade School of Art, and I also have a Master's degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Creative Writing. I have taught at Edinburgh College of Art, the University of the West of Scotland and the University of the Highlands and Islands, and exhibited throughout the UK and in Australia. I have carried out residencies at the British School at Rome, The University of Oxford, Grizedale, The Scottish Arts Council Australia Residency, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Stills Gallery, IAAB International Residency Programme in Switzerland, Wysing Arts Centre, and Timespan Arts and Heritage. I have been commissioned to make major public art works for The Balfour Hospital, Kirkwall, The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Auchterarder Community School. 

Awards include a the Royal Scottish Academy MacRobert Trust Art Award for Painting, William Littlejohn Award for excellence and innovation in water-based media, the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, Scottish Arts Council Artist’s Award, an RSA Art for Achitecture Award and a British Council Scholarship.

I work with visual artists and writers of memoir and narrative non-fiction, as a creative mentor, writing coach and developmental editor.