Hello dear Substackers. 👋

I’ve decided to finally, actually, definitely start using Substack properly.

Or at least as well as I can.

I realise that I’ve never introduced myself. I don’t think so anyways. I also don’t really know how to use Substack and have always been more of an Instagram gal, so it’s all new here. But here we go.

Hi. My name’s Alex, and I’m an artist, writer and solo parent/single mum to a six-year-old. I split my time between sculpting, drawing and writing (and trying to fit in every other arty creative pastime I can think of), with being a mum (hoovering crumbs, picking up toys, making sandwiches, hide and seeking, seek and hiding, learning words, unknotting curls and playing countless board games… amongst all the other stuff that you apparently have to do when you’re a parent).

I have a background in theatre and costumes, and a deep deep love of anything performance related, be it dance, musicals, live music, or comedy.  I did drama and theatre studies all through school and 6th form, moved off to Uni to study law, did law for the next gazillion years, whilst fitting in anything theatre in the evenings and weekends, until I realised I actually don’t like working in the law stuff that much and just want to create!….I am a theatre kid and always will be.  For now I have a lovely day job that I squeeze into my days, and is perfect for now and it pays all my bills and keeps me in paintbrushes and wellies and books and hobnobs.

I am an incredibly nostalgic and sentimental person and will happily take many trips back to my younger years, but I am doing my best to live in the now. I suffer with varying levels of anxiety and worrying about ‘future stuff/stuff I cant control/just stuff’ often clashes with trying to be present and in the moment and also wanting to dash back to the past, which can make for an interesting and often exhausting head space. Art and writing are my escape.

My work is often whimsical, silly, and sometimes thoughtful and maybe occasionally humorous. I love writing daft poems and short stories and have for the last year been working on a script which I really love and am deeply invested in and so am finding it terrifying.

What else? Oh, I love history, and etymology, and gardening and I collect books and art and I hoard way too much. I still play CDs and DVDs and I am slowly building my (dads) vinyl collection, which I play on my crappy old record player. I wish I was a better gardener and baker, but I am an ok cook I think. Sometimes.  I am constantly overstimulated and am a horrible cliché in that I drink way, way too much coffee.  

I think that a bourbon biscuit is highly underrated and I like my fruit sour and crunchy and very cold.

I have a 16 year old cat. She has anxiety too. And only four teeth. Her name is Dolly and she is very annoyed an awful lot of the time.

Also, I overshare.

Sooooo, if you’re a writer, poet, illustrator, maker of anything, costume lover, animator sculptor, theatre obsessive, cat lover, parent, someone who knows how to keep plants alive, can talk for a while about 80s movies…….or anything in between, please drop a hello in the comment. I would love to meet you.

That was a lot longer than I intended it to be, but honestly, that always happens. I just go with it now.

ok bye

xx