I was born in the West Midlands in 1965. My family came from London and I have lived there since 1985.

From 1985-88 I studied a BA (honours) in Fine Art at Saint Martin’s School of Art, now one of the colleges of the University of the Arts London (UAL).

From 1988-94 I showed and exhibited my work in a range of London galleries and had a studio off Gray’s Inn Road, W1.

In 1995 I completed an MA at Manchester Metropolitan University and won a Sasakawa scholarship to work in Japan at the Awa Washi Kaikan on the island of Shikoku. I stayed there for 18 months and exhibited in a number of galleries.
It was in Japan that my work became influenced by language and communication.

On my return I set up a studio near Borough Market and began peripatetic teaching at the many colleges of the University of the Arts.

I completed a second MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the Institute of Education, University of London in 1999. I taught on the Design degree taught at Central Saint Martin’s (CSM) and became a full time staff member running the Context programme for a semester with Maziar Raein.

In 2001 I moved to Goldsmiths University of London. It was at Goldsmiths, from 2002-2006, that I directed the Writing Purposely in Art and Design (WritingPAD) project which addressed the role of writing in art and design, cofounded with John Wood (Goldsmiths), Maziar Raein (CSM) and Harriet Edwards (RCA). WritingPAD continues as an international network. In 2007 John Wood and I launched the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (Intellect), which we continue to co-edit. This journal became the published voice of the WritingPAD network.

I completed my PhD in 2016. Doing Language Together: Collaborative Writing Practice for Design Teams in Higher Education (Identification Number (DOI): https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00018524)

I opened the Metadesign Research Centre (MRU) at Swansea College of Art, UWTSD in 2018.

In 2016 I began an art science collaboration DreamsID with Sleep Scientist Mark Blagrove (Swansea University).

My art practice covers both painting and writing. I write songs for my band Professors of POP and construct poetry and Haikus as a way of commenting on the world on a daily basis. I also take photographs which are part of exploratory walks.