My family owned a small dress making business, as a child I loved being in the workshop where I learned how to appreciate fabric, design and the human figure. I will never forget how form and flesh change during a corset fitting. Fabric is amazing it has elasticity and pull, flow and direction. It is like skin.

For me skin is a territory that has meaning. It is political it is both public and private. It is part of our identity it is alive and it is a performance and communication platform.

Image appropriation in body decoration is a tool of empowerment and identity definition.

My small fabric figures are portraits taken from everyday events and national news feeds they are partly informed by reference to sculptural archetypes and modern cultural forms. The layers of drawing and painting are a mix of stolen and observed images they are political and they are celebrations and they aim to support liberation and freedom.

My small textile sculptures tend towards a recognisable human form although what passes for normal is not a requirement quite the opposite. The reclaimed cloth, surface seams and stress padding in  the fabric sculpture of Louise Bourgeois is a major reference.

The surface of my sculpture presents an important territory for statement. My surface drawings are inspired by Tattoo traditions particularly the North American Indian belief that people are part of a larger cycle of life interpreting elements of land, sky, water and space.

Collage drawings underpin my ideas, appropriated images become part of image development in my painting and surface information in my sculpture.

If I pay homage to any great classical tradition it would be the inspirational Sanchi Torso in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is temple art from a Buddhist culture. It exemplifies a contrast between naturalism and a style that explores complex carved form the aims of which work well in fabric sculpture.