Portsmouth Comic Con 2022 - International festival of comics came and went on 7th and 8th May. Angus Day and I joined forces to trade as The Empire of Nonsense in Comic City 2 and were absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of support we received, whilst being lucky enough to be at the same event as some of the greatest writers and illustrators in the industry.

Saturday saw Angus get randomly interviewed, kid’s workshops, artist panel talks, a spike of interest in our never-sold-before original artwork, a lot of sunshine and happy people. By Sunday, more than 100 people had dared to stick their hand in our yucky dip head and got to take home a mini doodle, I had the chance to speak with artists from America, and grab some advice on building my art further. So even if you aren’t into the cosplay side of Comic Con, it’s more than worth a visit to branch out creatively.

On Saturday 16th April 2022, piled high were food donations to Portsmouth Food Bank. Staggeringly Good Brewery held an amazing event - The Interstellar Food Drive. This saw musicians, DJ’s, artists, bar and kitchen staff and volunteers club together to donate to our local food bank. Huge thanks go to the Portsmouth collective of Strong Island Recordings, Mark Kellett, Vol.1, Thank God for Sinners and Velvet Candy for organising such an inspiring event! In the midst of all this, was also a charity art exhibition held by Mark, which was able to raise a further £340. I feel lucky to be part of such a loving place and to be able to trade and share my art amongst such talented people makes me so happy!

On 26th February 2022, I was part of my first in-person group exhibition, organised by The Grateful Arts Club. This was held at St Margaret’s Church, and had a theme of “Love is…” Every artist involved had to adhere to this theme through their art piece and it was all displayed and put up for sell on the day to raise money for Motiv8 Portsmouth, a youth organisation giving young people in the city more opportunities and support.

In February 2022, Pastel Wasteland, indie horror film company held a film festival at No.6 cinema in the dockyard. I was thrilled to be invited as a trader to this event, and I felt like my art fitted in perfectly with the theme, people and atmosphere. It as an all-dayer full of gore, thrills and fear - and I met some interesting people!

Mark Kellett and Vol.1 put together a lovely event full of local musicians and artists as an all-dayer in the warehouse - this was a great event to bring everyone together just before Christmas!

Groundlings Theatre held an artisan type event in summer 2021 to raise awareness of their new projects and events. Lots of artists and crafters came together to sell and create and raised money through a raffle too!

Angus Day and I attended the Hambledon Flower Show in the summer of 2021. This was where Angus grew up and reckoned it could be worth a shot to get our art out in a different location with a different audience. It was an event that at first didn’t seem like it would do well for our work but it took us by surprise as we sold original paintings and lino prints and bought some overbearing vibrancy to the market.

Missing the WeCreate markets, Angus Day and I decided to stall-share at Love Southsea markets in Palmerston road. We did a few of these from June until about August and it was definitely a good test to see what sells, what people love most and also if mine and Angus’ work meshed well together. People almost couldn’t tell the difference between our works and our collabs were very popular - it felt right to keep trading together and meant we could bounce ideas and projects off one another.

The biggest jump so far was WeCreate, October 2020. We Create Market was born from the need for a large, safe, indoor, affordable space for local creatives to be able to come together to sell their work during the testing times.

After visiting Angus (Artsmouth organiser) at the WeCreate Market in September, I felt inspired to give it a go myself. This felt like a big personal step at the time and I felt really anxious to get myself out there.

It was a huge success, I felt absolutely overwhelmed with how much support I received, how many interesting questions I was asked and how much art went home with people. It was a real boost to keep going with it all and be confident in myself and my work.

Leading on from the online exhibitions, I was asked to contribute to a project at the Wedgewood Rooms. This was a great idea - the Wedgewood team put up local artist’s work in the window slots that would usually be filled with band posters and ads for upcoming events. It was a nice way of making the building feel alive while we wait for events to return.

This was my first ever public display of my work and it definitely motivated me to keep going.

The first time I ever submitted my work to anything. I sent off two of my A4 doodles to an organisation called Artsmouth. A year-long project by an exhibition group, who were helping local artists reach a wider audience while being stuck in lockdown. I was accepted into a group exhibition that was hosted 5th to 18th June 2020.

I was absolutely amazed to be asked to have a solo exhibition on the Artsmouth website and and 12 pieces of my work were exhibited under the name ‘Rotating Reality’, from 28th August to 10th September 2020.

This really was the boost I needed that my work was ‘good’ enough and other people could understand my work the way I did.

Little did I know one of the organisers of this project would become my art business partner!