I am a community artist born and raised in Northamptonshire. From a very young age, I have always had a passion and found a lot of enjoyment in visual arts. During my childhood, I fell in love with Wallace and Gromit and created my own sculpture of the two main characters. My parents took a photo of this, and we posted it to Nick Park at Ardman Studios. I never expected to hear anything back, although, a few weeks later I received a letter from Nick Park containing positive feedback around my sculpture and encouraging me to keep creating. This has been one of my biggest inspirations.

 

I have always had a hard time understanding and expressing who I am and how I experience the world around me. When I was in my early 20s, these difficulties worsened and this started to affect my mental health and wellbeing.

My family could see how difficult it was for me to understand and express myself, so they said to me “Jonathan, why don't you make or draw what you're trying to tell us if you can't find the words to say.”

So, I did. From that point, I have used visual art such as drawing, painting, and sculpting along with other mediums to help me understand what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling, and to help me understand my experiences and the world around me.

 

These experiences have inspired and motivated me to get out into my local community and share my passion for visual art with others. I have been professionally mentored by artist Jason Wilsher-Mills, which has seen me travelling to many parts of the UK supporting him with his events and exhibitions. I have had my own artwork on display locally in Northamptonshire and at the Scunthorpe 20:20 Art Gallery alongside Jason's own exhibition.

 

Over the last four years, I have been lucky enough to receive local and national funding to deliver artist in residencies within education establishments and community organisations within Northamptonshire. I have used these opportunities to share my experiences and artistic skills with children, young people, and adults to help them understand how powerful visual art can be with supporting them to understand themselves and share who they really are with the people around them.