What do you see when you see the sea?

What do you see when you see the sea?

  I’m delighted to share with you an exploration of this and other questions with the artist Tania Kovats. I met Tania over 20 years ago when we were both on the same artist residency programme in Rome. Although our paths have only crossed once, and briefly at...
Smashed eggs, cracked ice and dopamine hits

Smashed eggs, cracked ice and dopamine hits

  How to finish that big creative project? That’s what I’m asking myself right now. Having big creative ideas is easy. Starting with enthusiasm is easy. But seeing creative projects through all the way to completion, turning up day after day when the...
The subversive power of ‘flow’

The subversive power of ‘flow’

What is that creative itch that keeps wanting scratched? Why do we get fretful when life’s obligations keep pulling us away from the creative work we want to do? Why is it we expend so much of our time and energy on activities, sometimes quite demanding, that...
Time, boredom and that 4am feeling

Time, boredom and that 4am feeling

When I was a kid, stuck in the family caravan in the Trossachs on yet another rainy weekend I’d get fed up of reading or drawing or staring out the window, and complain to my parents of boredom. I can remember my mother answering briskly “If you’re bored it’s because...
When the road ahead is blocked, take the scenic route

When the road ahead is blocked, take the scenic route

I am often asked about the fact that I am both a writer and a visual artist, and how these two creative practices fit together. I was asked this question again at the lovely book launch event at the new “Threshing Floor Theatre” that was held this weekend...