What kind of a year has 2024 been for you?
2024 has been very busy! I have installed two of my murals, one in Spa Fields and one in St John’s Gardens, both in London, and I co-curated the show PARKED with Ishbel Mull at SPACE, London.
PARKED first took place back in 2017 and was supposed to be an annual event but Covid and life got in the way. I was so thrilled that this year we got funding from a local business called Comptons, which enabled us to curate a second show. The idea is that invited artists ‘park’ their work in the gardens. We wanted to bring art to everyone in accessible and unexpected places.
This year it was much bigger and included 15 artists, some of whom are very well known like Tracey Emin and Jeremy Deller and others who are more emerging like Pete Jessett and plenty in between. I like the idea of artists helping artists along the way.
I moved into a smaller SPACE studio for economic reasons which was a good opportunity to sort through stuff and make decisions. I have had a SPACE studio for many years and feel privileged to do so – thank goodness for charities like SPACE and Acme that support artists.
I find it puzzling that no one has found a way to monetise the benefit that artists bring to an area. Artists make areas desirable by being there and then they get priced out of the area. They then move and make another area cool, and then have to move on again!
What has changed for the better?
I am getting more recognition for my work as an artist and for the artist workshops I give and that is what I would ideally be doing full time. I have got lots of plans for new pieces of work.
What do you wish had happened this year that hadn’t happened?
I wish I had earned more money as an artist and didn’t have to do so many other jobs to raise funds to keep afloat.
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
Winning the Working Drawing Award at the Trinity Buoy Working Drawing Prize and being highly commended in the Prize was amazing. Also putting on PARKED was a big deal as we had 15 artists exhibiting across two public spaces in Clerkenwell.
The film, The Tree, that my daughter Tyro Heath made about my installation at Hogchester Arts has been shown in some great British Independent Film Awards qualifying film festivals including WOFFF, Merging Arts Short Short Story Film Festival and Elevation Film Festival.
Your winning work is the plan for the 11th work in a series of 22 murals. Can you explain a little bit about the project and the background behind it?
My son Cato tragically died in 2010 aged 21 years. Since his death, my work has evolved into a project of recording the marks he made during his life, the places that we visited and the images that linger after someone has left.
The first painting I made after he died was of 8025 rectangles, each rectangle signifying a day. Some of the colours are symbols for events that took place like physiotherapy or medical appointments and the bright vibrant colours are normal happy days.
I work from my diaries and his hospital records. This started me on a journey to create a mural for every year of his life and install them in places that were significant to him. They are all in the public domain, as I want them to become a collective place for mourning, with some painted in situ on either brick or render, and others on aluminium panels.
Passersby stop and ask what I am doing and as I tell them my story they will tell me theirs. I have documented these and hope to make a publication when all the murals are finished with images of the works alongside the kind words that were spoken and received by email or on Instagram.
How do you think winning the Working Drawing Award at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize will impact your practice in future?
It has given me a big boost of confidence to keep going. I’ve been shortlisted several times over the years so to win this year felt like such an honour and just shows you have to keep creating work and applying for things. I also feel like it was a great shout out for older women and older women artists!
I hope that winning the prize will help instigate another solo show, a retrospective even. Being in my studio and doing this work is a necessity for me and brings me comfort and it is great that it is being recognised.
Finally, what does being a member of a-n mean to you?
a-n is a fantastic resource with such a lot of useful information and advice. And of course you get your public liability thrown in. Everyone should be a member!
Top image: Emma Douglas in Front of Cato Mural, St Curigs North Wales. Courtesy the artist
