Research and Creative Practice

I am an artist, researcher and educator whose work moves between contemporary art, feminist and psychoanalytic aesthetics, Jungian and post-Jungian thought, and practice-based research. Across painting, drawing, writing and research, I am interested in relationships between psyche, image and place, and in how creative practice can give form to experiences and ways of knowing that resist straightforward articulation.

My recent practice-based research developed through the MA in Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination at Limerick School of Art and Design (2024–2026), bringing Jungian arts-based research into dialogue with terrapsychological inquiry. Centred on Mide, the mythic Fifth Province of Ireland, this work explores landscape as both geographical and imaginal terrain and considers the relationships between psyche, place and creative practice. The archetypal feminine and the recurring figure of the feral cat have become important presences within this enquiry, emerging through painting, drawing, walking, writing and encounters with landscape.

This research has generated both creative and scholarly work. In 2026, I exhibited in The Alchemical Imagination at Limerick School of Art and Design as part of the 11th Annual Art and Psyche Symposium. In 2025, I presented Folding Shadows, Unfolding Psyche: Alchemical Transformations in Painting and Concertina Books at the international Alchemy Conference: Exploring Metaphorical Transformations and Arts-Based Research at the University of Oxford. I am a member of the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS).

A parallel strand of my research considers socially engaged art, creative pedagogy and cultural practice within contested and post-conflict contexts. In 2025, I presented Restorative Justice: Creative Practices in Peacebuilding at The Art of Peacebuilding: Education, Empathy, and Engagement in Uncertain Times at SUNY Purchase College, New York.

Teaching and Learning

I have taught art theory, contemporary art and practice-based research at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over twenty years. My approach to teaching is experiential and situated, bringing academic enquiry into dialogue with creative practice, place and lived experience. I am particularly interested in learning that extends beyond the conventional classroom, using encounters with artists, communities, cultural spaces and landscapes to encourage critical reflection, curiosity and dialogue.

I am academic lead for Creativity in Peacebuilding, a four-credit module developed with the MAC Belfast for New York University. Situated within the social, cultural and political landscape of Northern Ireland, the module considers the role of creative practice in peacebuilding through direct engagement with artists, cultural organisations, community practitioners and places shaped by histories of conflict and reconciliation.

From 2020–2025, as Associate Head of Belfast School of Art, I led Academic Quality and Student Experience, with particular emphasis on curriculum development, widening access and participation, and inclusive approaches to art and design education. Since becoming Deputy Head in 2025, my remit has expanded to include international partnerships and strategic initiatives around people, place and partnership, inclusivity and community engagement.

Civic and Cultural Engagement

I have a longstanding relationship with the visual arts and cultural sector in Northern Ireland, working across academic, artist-led and cultural contexts. My current partnerships include the MAC Belfast, Void Art Centre in Derry and MACHA Press, developing connections between Belfast School of Art, artists, cultural organisations and communities.

I supervise doctoral research engaging with the Orchard Gallery archive in Derry and was previously Chair of Bbeyond, Northern Ireland’s performance art organisation. I am particularly interested in creating spaces in which universities, artists, cultural organisations and communities can work together, and in sustaining meaningful relationships between artistic practice, education, place and public life.

Research Interests

Contemporary Art and Painting · Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies · Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination · Practice-Based and Arts-Based Research · Feminist Art Theory and Feminine Subjectivity · Landscape, Place and the Imaginal · Art, Conflict and Peacebuilding · Embodiment, Materiality and the Unconscious · Curatorial Practice and Contemporary Art Histories · Research-Led Pedagogy and Art Education