The artist - I am an artist and cultural geographer based at the University of Dundee who utilises photography, drawing, filmmaking and curating to document and explore our connections to a wide variety of places. I am inspired by the ways in which paying attention to everyday details in unusual ways can draw us into what, at first glance, appear to be unexceptional spaces. By noticing the world and people around us we open up the possibility for revealing, and recognising, the importance of intriguing and special stories.
This photograph captures a special moment in my parents’ kitchen as the morning sun briefly broke through some passing clouds to shine across a side window. Their kitchen is a place of warmth and every time I visit I am reminded of how this room reflects so much of their nurturing and various family activities over the years. Their love of colour has also been immortalised in their décor—a vintage which has now (happily) come back into vogue. Although a tranquil pause in a private haven, the colours viewed through the back door also hint at wider connections to the garden and nearby neighbours. The tilt of the ceiling pulley up to the right, my parents’ optimistic approach to life, and the flow of light from the window—combined with my Dad’s ongoing amazing cooked breakfasts!—gave me the inspiration for the title, ‘Sunnyside Up.’