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RENAISSANCE Open Call exhibition, Seventh Circle.

Happy New Year!

I’ve been quiet for a bit, and that was on purpose tbh. I needed to step away from the studio and just do life for a while. December was spent travelling in southern Thailand, slowing right down, getting some zen, and also getting engaged, which still feels quite mad to write down. It was a real pause! I came back feeling rested, clearer, and ready to return from the lovely 31 degrees to a shocking 1 degree in Brum-land, lol!

…Before I stepped away, I wrote about finishing the year and realising that pretty much everything I made in 2025 revolved around one thing, reconnection. At the time, I don’t think I fully understood that. I thought I was exploring closeness between people, dual portraits, what happens when two figures share the same space. But with a bit of distance, I can see that a lot of that work was actually about me. About reconnecting with myself after losing mom. That loss knocked the wind out of me, and the work became a way of finding my feet again without really realising that’s what I was doing.

That feels especially true when I look at The Space Between Us 05 and The Space Between Us 06. These are the two works I’ll be showing as part of the RENAISSANCE Open Call at Seventh Circle in Digbeth. By the time I got to these paintings, something shifted. Five and six just landed differently. They felt like a sweet spot. They hold the tension, the closeness, the awkwardness, the silence, all the things that sit underneath that whole body of work.

The Space Between Us #05

The Space Between Us 05 was shortlisted for the Women in Art Prize, which I was honestly absolutely pumped about!! Both of these works sit very close to me. They started partly as a response to the speed of AI and the world we’re living in, but there was always something else running underneath. When I look at them now, I can see myself in them. That’s still a strange thing to admit, but it feels true. They’re about reconnecting, and because of that, they’re about becoming something new.

Which is why they feel right for RENAISSANCE. When you strip it back, it’s about rebirth. Not going back to who you were, but figuring out who you are now, after things have changed you. After life’s done its thing…

Coming into a new year, that’s where I’m at. I’ve had the rest I needed. I stepped away. And now I’m stepping back in again, feeling excited about what’s ahead :))

The RENAISSANCE Open Call exhibition opens with a Private View on Saturday 24 January (6-8pm) and runs until 22 February. If you’re around, come down and have a look. I’d love to see you.

Here’s to 2026 and seeing where the work goes next!!

x M x

RENAISSANCE - Exhibition Poster