Catharine Clark Ross and Cromarty, United Kingdom
Over the last twenty years I have worked as an independent community arts practitioner across various settings including healthcare, education and in community. I have used puppetry, 2D and 3D media, textiles and storytelling as creative mediums. More recently I have focused on traditional Scottish crafts of spinning and weaving with references to natural landscapes and sense of place.
Art and Craft Shop Proprietor - last year I was funded by Ayrshire Council to set up a community art shop on the Isle of Cumbrae. I ran various heritage craft workshops, the shop was also a creative community hub and exhibition space. I enjoyed skill sharing and working collaboratively with other artists and members of the community. My legacy was to leave an established shop in the management of another island artist. I am now a representative for the charity Engage Arts working across the Outer Hebrides, and will be connecting with other arts organisations and community groups this coming year, as well as being part of the wider Engage Arts community. I am particularly interested in the transformative power of art and currently creating environmental art across the Outer Hebrides, at the same time as exploring and a sense of place in my surroundings . I use found materials in the natural environment, upcycle where possible and seek to transform waste into art that blends into the landscape. I am passionate about art as a vehicle for personal transformation, as well as being a tool for social cohesion. I enjoy working in collaboration with other artists and those discovering their artist within. Art to me is a process of discovery, of unravelling what essential to life, without with a therapeutic value that is immeasurable. It is my joy, my journey and part of the very fabric of my life and I love sharing this with others through offering up a variety of art and craft workshops.
