The College Gallery in Life Hall of Montclair State College (now University) is a fairly grand looking space with a large glass front to it. The viewer can casually take in the exhibit(s) in one glance as they walk through the front door, and the eye can drift to the Sculpture Garden beyond the gallery at the back, in hot weather this is inviting, as well as a respite to the work. It was in such an atmosphere Ð in May 1991- that my sense of being an artist really starts. Towards the end of my period of a student exchange at MSC, I was invited to show as a guest in the BFA student exhibition. The 3 works exhibited were all produced during the preceding 5 months that I had been there. In fact they were breakthrough pieces of 'Urban Americana' that had been going around in my head for a good two years prior to this.

During that time I had decamped from London to Dundee, learned (rather badly) how to throw a pot, and produced loads of design based objects during my first year at DJCA. The urban aspect to my work had been present on my foundation course before I went up to Dundee in the Autumn of 1989. And I would eventually pick it up again through the creation of ceramic sculptures based around architectural structures and tower blocks. This beginning of a direction came in the summer of 1990 it was a great period of motivation to be stimulated by new ideas and new work by day, whilst the backdrop of 'Italia 90' played out around our lives by night. Maybe being surrounded by Scots made the exploits of Gazza, Lineker and Platt for England that summer even more unforgettable then the subsequent hype would suggest, although just as delightful - for us English - was the fun of watching Scotland crash to Costa Rica 0-1. But I digress, it was these works, and others towards the end of 1990 that were inspired by corrugated iron fences and rust that started to establish a direction

However it was the urban America of New York and New Jersey that took me over between January and June 1991. Arriving 2 days before Bush Snr invaded Kuwait and kicked off the first Gulf War images of patriotism and bullish defiance were the fare on offer around me, but it wasn't yellow ribbons and - even more than usual -flags and bunting, that was gripping my attention. In the case New York it was neon signs and the Newsweek building in Times Square, as for the cultural chasm that existed across the Hudson it was the influence of the multi - lane freeways of the Turnpike and Route 3. These works set me up for my final year back at DJCA, in the meantime I became a member of Open Space Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania showing there for the first time in September 1991 in a group show. It had become my intention to return to the New York metropolitan area, and already I was able to form links in this capacity. Many thanks must be given to Maryann Riker at this point, who became a big influence on my early career both as inspiration through her qualities as an artist, and by her sheer professionalism in how she marketed herself. It was in fact through her gallery connections that I was able to start showing in the states. Particularly during the year I had to be back in the UK finishing off my degree.

The direction forged at Montclair, became the fulcrum for what went into my final show at Dundee in the Summer of 1992. It was an interesting group of seven of us that had graduated and also exhibited. Six females and me, a combination that probably caused as much stress as it did plus points for the male ego. Certainly the 'war of attrition' that became increasingly more open between certain members of that group as deadlines loomed ever closer, made Laura Pretsell and myself glad that we were exhibiting in a different room to the rest

That summer of 1992 was spent frantically raising money as many ways as I could, working in a variety of jobs, selling my old records and other personal memorabilia. I had been offered the chance to return to Montclair State for the graduate programme, and also offered the position of Graduate Assistant in the Ceramics department. I arrived back in New Jersey in September, and my creative work suffered from 'settling in' problems and trying to gain the necessary degree of proper focus and concentration needed. I hadn't had any difficulty back on my previous visit in 1991, when I had hit the ground running knowing I was only staying for a few months anyway, this time it was a lot harder.

Perceptions a home from home - parts 1 to 24- Ceramic mixed media 1994

In fact it wasn't until early 1993 that the next major development began to appear in front of me. An intentional metaphor as it happens, because it was whilst being a passenger in Maryann Riker's car - during the several journeys we made that winter between east Jersey and her home on the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border - that the patterns and trails left by the mass of car tail and headlights against the blackness of night started to make an impression on me. The sense of romanticism found in taillights on a New Jersey highway, is I suppose the logical way to go for someone who grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen. After a few false starts, 'Perceptions a home from home' was created over the summer and autumn of 1993. The 24 individual panels featured different combinations of reflectors against xeroxes on acetate of maps stuck onto ceramic. These maps represented, London, Dundee and New York/New Jersey. I didn't realise it at the time, but this work epitomised the theme of Urban disorientation, which I had been going through between all of these places over the past four years and would continue after my return to the UK through to the end of 1997. Although 'Perceptions' was made from 24 individual parts, I always intended it to be flexible in that these parts could be displayed in different sub-groupings and in different compositions It is a work that I am still immensely proud of, and is still my favourite piece from back then and still 100% stands up to scrutiny a decade later. 'Perceptions' also marked my real departure away from 3 dimensional ceramic sculpture into wall relief pieces.

My debut in the field of curating and organising exhibitions took place in the autumn of 1993 withCcontemporary artists form Scotland. I was able to utilise my connections in Scotland together with Maryann Riker's in the LeHigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, in order to bring over from Britain the work of 6 artists from the WASPS studios in Dundee and 6 from the equivalent in Edinburgh, as part of the Celtic Festival in Bethlehem Pennsylvannia.

In 1993 I also joined another Gallery City Without Walls in Newark, NJ, and showed work there a couple of times over the next 2 years, including as a showcase artist where 6 of the 'Perceptions' panels were displayed. Several other works that make up the 'solids & Voids' series, grew out of this theme of reflector lights, and this led on to 'Mapscape of habitation' which became the focal point of my graduation as one of the 4 artists in the 'Four emerging artists' exhibition in January 1995. Click here for the comprehensive paper I wrote about the status and theories behind my work at this point.

Mapscape of habitiaion - viewed @ Private view of Four emerging artists (MA show) - Montclair State University, NJ - January 1995

Private view of Four emerging artists (MA show) - Montclair State University, NJ - January 1995

I had decided to return home to England, In April 1995. Again more upheaval resulted, and that summer I was faced with settling back into London, as well as the trauma of my father's death that June. I wasn't really able to get down to any proper work until the following autumn when I moved into the studio at Larnaca works. The first major body of work became a bit of a labour of love. I was invited to be part of a series of events related to football. As part of the celebrations the London borough of Brent were putting on to coincide with the Euro 96 tournament at Wembley Stadium and other venues around the country. The 2-person show was 'an exhibition of two halves' at the Willesden Green Centre. 'Sites from a Saturday' were a series of 4 ceramic/mixed media works that observed the forgotten culture of pre Taylor Report stadiums, found via an imaginary archaeological dig in the future, including elements of old terracing and memorabilia such as rosettes, and rattles. I also produced a series of monochrome paintings (with a definite nod of Minimalism present too) that focus on symbolic images of 1970's football, such as goal stanchions and fences, that are indelibly stamped within my subconscious.

The 'Which landscape, Double View' series of pieces returned me to the domain of maps and urban topography, and mark the end of this phase of my work. I created these over the second half of 1996 and most of 1997, in stop/start fashion due partly to the conflicting commitment of a job I had taken part-time on the Labour Party General Election fundraising team. Staring from a body of drawings the 4 main pieces incorporate hand made clay tiles with Perspex drawn and printed on top to form a type of cabinet. Much of this approach came from the Once their was an England work that I had made for 'an exhibition of two halves' previously. The idea was partly from the notion of observing land from an aeroplane at night (shortly after take off) and how the topography seems to drift on below us. On top of this the represented topography of maps and photographs is superimposed in top, starting from the reality of areas of London and New York, but becoming fantasy landscapes and thus abstractions in the process.

After the best forgotten- '4 abstract artists' exhibition that I showed some of these works in, my hiatus from the art world began. By the time I would return in the summer of 1999 I would be forging a different and much more colourful direction.

The Journey - Painted Ceramic 1991

Perceptions a home from home part 17- Ceramic mixed media
1994

Solids & voids # 2
Ceramic, wood & mixed media
1994

Mapscape of habitiaion (detail. Four emerging artists (MA show) - Montclair State University, NJ - January 1995

Sites from a saturday # 2
clay & other mixed media in a perspex case - 1996

Cup goal # 1
Acrylic on board - 1996