Artist Statement

I am a multidisciplinary artist, working mainly through photography and digital art, using a range of photographic equipment including film, pinhole, polaroid and DSLR cameras.

My photography work ranges from live event photography, to studio photography including portraiture, travel documentation and observation of nature. Many of my shoots to date have been commissioned by local organisations and musical performers, meaning that I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of people professionally.

However, for my own wellbeing, I am also passionate about painting and creative writing, which inevitably informs my community arts facilitation practice alongside my photography skills.

My work for this exhibition is inspired by local live music and community-run venue, ‘Clwb y Bont’. The venue hosts a wide range of activities and gatherings for the local community, and so it felt appropriate to consider a way in which I could showcase and celebrate Pontypridd’s recently achieved ‘Bee-Friendly Status’. I wanted to highlight the efforts the community and local artists have put in to being one of very few towns to have acquired this title, and to spread the message further. Initially I had intended to create a film to be viewed in an outdoor courtyard space at Clwb y Bont, like an outdoor cinema set-up. However, now that the exhibition has had to move online, it will actually help to ensure that the bee-friendly ethos reaches an even broader audience and hopefully encourages others to follow suit.

I issued an open invitation for anyone to contribute their bee-friendly experiences with me to be part of the film. Needless to say, I received a large number of responses! I hope you enjoy this documentation of what they have shared alongside my own journey of discovering what it truly means to be ‘bee-friendly’.