This is a question I get asked about a lot. How did you find your path and how did you get there?

Well… it took a while, let me tell you that! I never thought I’d be able to get to this point, but it turns out that I finally got there and am thoroughly enjoying it!

So where shall we begin…? At the beginning? Ok, let’s go from there!

Growing up I was obsessed with Sylvanian Families. If you don’t know what they are, they are little woodland creatures that have houses, bakeries, house boats etc. It’s just like human life, but animal form. I would spend hours by myself just playing and playing, sorting out their living situations and creating scenarios for them, like a tame version of Eastenders, which mainly revolved around family life and which boy you fancied at the time! I would make them clothes, new furniture and houses made from anything I could find. It was the best time of my life! By the age of around 12 I realised that it probably wasn’t cool to play with toys anymore, so I had to pretend I didn’t really like them… sad times. I still have a massive soft spot for them and think about all the hours of my life I spent playing and using my imagination.

It was only until I went and did my art foundation at Camberwell College of Arts that I realised I had been making all my life and just hadn’t noticed. I always thought I was a fine artist who just didn’t really like to paint that much because that was just the path I had gone down from GCSE fine art to A level fine art. 3D design just never occurred to me. It was only until a tutor talked about it that I finally realised that yes, I do love making things with my hands and creating. Screw you fine art!! And that’s how I ended up going to study 3D materials practice, wood, ceramics, metals and plastics at the University of Brighton.

It was the best experience and the most amazing 3 years of my life. I got to play around with materials and met some incredible friends. It gave me the space to explore ideas and try things I’d never done before. My degree show piece was all about making games and toys for kids with emotional and behavioural problems and getting them to open up about how they were feeling. It was all based on the work my Mum did as a learning mentor in a primary school.

After graduating in 2013 I was thrust into the world of real life where I was super optimistic about all the amazing opportunities out there. I had had interest from Lego, who asked me to apply for a job in Denmark and I was on top of the world! M&S had also asked me to come for an internship to create toys for kids at Christmas and it just seemed like the world was my oyster! 2 of my designs got put into production from that internship and it was the coolest thing ever to say that I had made products for M&S!

That summer I’d been asked to work in a place called Millington Associates where they make window displays for retail. It was really fun and I met some great people, but I ended up spending too long there and felt like I’d lost a lot of my skills I’d gained at University and had lost confidence in myself. Once you get pigeon holed in one job, it’s very hard to move into a different area.

Millington Associates window displays for Nike. Sorry for the terrible quality... camera phones weren’t very good back in them days.

After making a choice to leave Millingtons, I ended up in a place called Theme Traders. Now, they didn’t call it Dream Faders for any old reason…. it really did kill your soul! They hired out hundreds of props to parties and tv, so we were making new props or just touching up super old props. The pay was crap, they expected you to work extra hours and they weren’t very nice to you. But for some reason I stayed for a few months and if it hadn’t been for my friend Jo, I think it would have been even worse!

From there I did many different jobs to see what was out there and what I would enjoy. From cake decorating to gardening to hot water bottles. There ain’t nothing this girl won’t try!!

Anyway… you get the gist! I’ve done so many jobs as a freelancer and some of them have been fun, and some have been terrible.

Then I ended up working on a TV show for CBBC called Art Ninja which was great because I got to make all the art for the show and the “here’s one I made earlier!” I spent months paper macheing and painting toilet rolls. Living the dream! But then it came to filming and it was a shocker. I still have stress dreams about it…

CBBCs Art Ninja with all the makes I did for the show.

Since then I’ve worked on other TV shows and films on and off as a painter like Fantastic beasts, Captain Marvel, The Great and Great Expectations. It can be really fun if you’re in a great team, but ultimately the hours take over your life and make it hard to have any kind of social life. You’re also working with chemicals that are really bad for you so it ain’t so good for your health! And the stress of it all really took its toll on my sensitive little soul. I get ill quite easily if I work too much, so need to watch myself.

A selection of images from The Great. Gilding, old bandages and wood graining were a few of the things I did for the TV series.

In between these years I set up my own clothing business called Pingui Designs (that’s my nickname) where I designed, screen printed and hand painted my own clothing, but ultimately it didn’t reflect myself as a person and I was always embarrassed telling people about it, so that was definitely a sign that it wasn’t right! But alas, I persevered and tried to make it work. I swore I’d never make or print clothing again! Look at me now… printing and designing clothing haha! But now it’s actually designs I really love and reflect me and my love of colour.

Hand painted and screen printed designs for Pingui Designs. Photos courtesy of Ahmani Vidal.

I’ve always wanted to do things for myself, I just didn’t know how to do it. But discovering collage really changed my life. I didn't realise it at the time, but I’d found a way for me to express myself through colour and paper and not think about how it was going to turn out or if it was photorealistic. I didn’t want people judging my drawing skills or having to worry about how crap it was looking. Collage let me do what I wanted and it was quick and easy. It let me get my ideas down without overthinking and ultimately just let me play.

It then snowballed and suddenly became my thing. It lead to murals and then the murals became my full time job. And next thing you know, I’ve painted over 30 murals in the space of a year and it looks like I may have finally found what I was meant to do!

Image courtesy of Bruna Balodis Photography

I’ve finally found something I’m good at and people can see the joy that it brings. My aim in life is to just have fun and be happy and it seems that that resonates with a lot of people. I don’t think I would have gotten here without all those others jobs because then I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much and seen how much work and effort has gone into getting this off the ground.

It’s amazing to think that doing something you really enjoy doing could be your full time job. It also amazes me how much other people enjoy it too. I think that’s what makes it worthwhile really.

So for anyone out there who is struggling to find what they’re good at or what their purpose is, all I can say is it takes time. You might be lucky enough to find it straight away, but for some of us it takes longer. I’m 31 and have only just found my thing!

My advice is… just do what you love. There’s no point wasting time on things you’re not enjoying and that you don’t care about very much. If you love it, other people will love it too. And the more time you spend on your favourite thing, the more you’ll get better at it and be the master of it. I spent years doing things I didn’t really love and that’s probably why it took so long to get here now.

Everyone talks about finding their WHY. That means why you do what you do. I do what I do because I love it! I love seeing spaces transformed and making them into joyful places for people to enjoy and feel happy. That it turn makes me happy.

What’s your why and how are you going to use it to change your life??

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Living Life With No Regrets

My Love of Circles