Growing up I spent a lot of time rearranging my bedroom. I liked the feeling of potential a tidy space can conjure. I also loved art and making things and dreamed of being an artist one day but I’m quite a shy thing. What I loved was the process of gathering research, filling sketchbooks, collecting objects, piecing things together. My subject matter revolved around identity, nostalgia, stories of ‘ordinary’ people, the epic in the everyday. This is how my notion of Personal Archives came about; portraits of people through the things they keep.

Books and boxes are so wonderful as they can be secret things, enjoyed alone or opened up and shared, albums full of photographs can be passed from lap to lap. They are such intimate objects, mini museums encapsulating moments; things that are close to hand and close to the heart. Real treasure to be treasured.