More about me

A life can be quite difficult to add up, especially when you feel you’ve had several lives not just one.

My erratic career began in America where I trained as a journalist in the days when it was still regarded as an honorable profession over there. After stints at various newspapers and magazines, I took a serious detour into running a marketing and design consultancy, mostly for non-profit organisations and charities such as the NSPCC and Sustrans who created the national cycle network.

Oblivion
I then decided I needed to reconnect with my own creativity and re-train as an artist. In the process I added a Fine Art degree to my existing one in English (the latter taken at the University of Arkansas where I ended up after receiving a sports scholarship). So now I work as an artist, writer and creative facilitator. 


My own art usually concerns questions of identity, loss and our place in the world.

I am particularly passionate about drawing and its relevance, and importance to our lives but I like to work across the arts whenever I can - so I am quite likely to mix in a little creative writing or theatre games even in an art workshop!

It just seems to me that we need to use, and be aware, of all our senses if we want to expresses ourselves imaginatively.

I'm  committed to working in the community and encouraging people to find or rekindle their ability to play creatively.

I have worked with children and adults in a variety of settings and with organisations such as the charity Lifebeat which runs summer camps for teenagers, Writing East Midlands and Fermynwoods Contemporary Art.

It's especially rewarding to work with children and adults who have been peppered with labels as I was, and who struggle with issues of self-esteem and lack of confidence.  

I have learned that the ability to approach, and think about life creatively, is what makes it worth living. The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan said the only thing we are guilty of is giving ground to our heart’s desires. But many people lose (or never recognise) their true desires, never discover their potential or capabilities as people. 

The tragedy of that fact is, I think, what drives Cardboard Citizens’ work and mine.



For more information go to http://www.facebook.com/greygibsonartist

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