I’m an artist educator with a live, social practice rooted in drawing and pedagogy.
I'm a white female (her/she) from a northern, working class background, brought up by a young single mum still living with her two parents. My family weren’t remotely academic, but I learned practical life skills from my mum, nan and 'Gamp'. School taught me some stuff, but the fabric of my little family was the intergenerational, holistic education model that excited me and set me up to understand what learning is: the entire world and the people in it.
I passionately believe that education should be accessible to all and lifelong, with the working class barriers I experience(d) informing how I navigate knowledge sharing. I use teaching - both in a traditional environment and alternative contexts - as a way to research how art can break down barriers between individuals, institutions and communities and how lifelong learning can be integrated into society and sustained; how can socially engaged art practices reimagine and reorganise for an alternative future?
Zoe Fact #1
I wear many hats, metaphorically but also actually because I like hats. I'm constantly questioning what an artist's role is within this awesome/painful/terrifying/hilarious/shit/beautiful/baffling world we live in.
Zoe Fact #2
Time confuses and scares the hell out of me but I'm fascinated by the links between it and our understanding. 'Just' by being alive, everything we know will change or disappear and because of this inevitable and irreversible shift, I place massive importance on live, direct experience. I'm therefore constantly freaked out about how I should invest and spend time; time is the only currency we all truly have.
Zoe Fact #3
Above all else I value family or friendship or community or inclusion or whatever name you personally call 'not feeling alone'. Consequently, my work centres around live happenings bringing people together for knowledge sharing, celebration and chats that hopefully lead to meaningful connections. I also investigate the lack of this: loss and the links between independence and loneliness is a constant presence.
Zoe Fact #4
I both hate and love objects. I'm intrigued by our connections and relationships with things and how and why an item becomes a treasured possession.
Zoe Fact #5
Drawing is the best thing since sliced bread. It's what I teach and therefore the basis of my whole social practice. I believe it's a philosophy as well as a skill - the key to making sense of you, us and it.
