Vesselhood

Leaving academia has given me the distance to reflect on my practice and recognise the ideas that continue to emerge through different forms of making. The idea of holding has become a central enquiry, whether through sculpture, textiles or printmaking.

Working from a single woodblock, I return to the same image repeatedly, allowing each print to develop through layers of colour and repeated impressions. No image can ever be exactly the same. Instead, each print becomes another exploration of vesselhood.

The female body is the starting point, but I have become increasingly interested in what a vessel can hold. Colour is central to this process. Each layer sits upon the previous one, altering what came before. Earlier impressions become embedded within the print. Although they are no longer fully visible, they continue to shape the image, giving it depth, weight and complexity.

Printmaking allows me to let go. I rarely begin with a fixed outcome. Instead, the work evolves through repetition, layering and attention. The image carries the evidence of its own making, where each layer remains part of the next. Like our own experiences, nothing is ever completely lost; each impression continues to shape what follows.