Nicky has been taking photographs, writing poems, painting and drawing for as long as she can remember, and although she trained formally in monochrome fine photography and printing, her practice uses all these media and more – including installation and performance. Nicky has come to realise that certain themes emerge both in the written word and in visual/performed works, being simply different expressions of the same thought patterns. Sometimes they merge to the extent that she thinks she has already drawn a particular image, whereas she has actually written the image as a poem. The wiring in our brains is a wonderfully endless mycelium web constantly forging new pathways and linking memories, ideas, images and words in new ways.

Nicky’s practice returns again and again to connection: person to person, person to nature, creature to creature. How animal are we and how might we use our powers of communication to express connection? She feels this should help us to live together better. The photos here are part of a recent body of work on human-wild connection.

Nicky uses a camera, acrylic paint, watercolour, Chinese brushes with ground ink, as well as pencil, graphite and fine ink pens. She loves paper but also found objects, wood and string, fabric and papier mache.