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Hi, I'm Helen!

I went to art school in the limestone “Hollywood Hills” of West Yorkshire. I can still visualize the decrepit signage on the train journey as I glided through Batley which will never compare to the glitzy icon perched on the Los Angeles hillside. Even though it is only an hour away from York by rail, it felt like a world away. I used to follow a gob (spit or saliva to the reader) limestone brick road to my art school each morning. Yuck! Not exactly the yellow brick road! “But the gob brick road did not bring me good witch Glenda of the North – she wouldn’t go west, no it brought me to two headed trolls with deep guttural accents who said awt or nawt.” This best describes the surreal nature of Dewsbury. As for ruby slippers, I had some red gingham ballet pumps, but I lost one in London after indulging too much out of a teacup and saucer.

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I am from the story book town of York, abundant with legends, myths and history which I have used as a resource for a great deal of my work. As one can tell from the Oz references and comparisons, I am a keen enthusiast of children’s literature and I use it as a great resource for my work.

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For all the fun I had at art school, I did struggle with written work. I have dyslexia and I have struggled with aspects of it for most of my life, although I did find that occasionally t works to my advantage in that some times I can see things from a different, more interesting perspective!

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In my world I follow a 'gob brick' road to digestive biscuit crumb beaches, fluffy peaches, moustachioed sausage burners, medieval bunnies, sneezable anatomy illustrations, elephant men, plague piggies, Harry Hausen inspired King Kong-sized Rats, a sugar lump Clifford’s Tower and Broccoli trees!.

 

 Life is a lot more interesting when one falls down the Rabbit Hole of Imagination – as the Cheshire Cat quotes “Imagination is the only weapon against reality”, so I suppose I built myself a fort from an early age and entrenched myself there.

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