Working professionally as an outdoor performer and artist for over twenty years, I don’t think many of my audience or peers would describe me as a writer. But I acknowledge my written practice – my poetry, short stories, and artist statements – has aided and furthered my creative exploration and development of ideas. Writing is always the starting point for my work; long before I articulate those ideas visually, or as performances or songs.

This literary practice and the endeavour to articulate also serves me stratigically. My words have attracted project support and creative partnerships with festivals and venues, securing commissions and enabled me to tour. Subsequently I have also supported other artists in writing marketing materials, tenders and funding applications for their work.

These initial seeds of text are seldom explored outside of performance contexts as work in their own right and my creative writing is entirely self taught.

However, throughout the development of my project Opal’s Comet, the songs and lyrics and short story were published as community resources and a podcast series.