Drawing diagrams to visualise and engage with abstract themes

Between 2019 and 2025 I worked on a doctoral research project at the University of Chester. I researched how the relationship between the self and outdoor environments became articulated in an emerging arts practice in response to the environment of Bakestonedale Moor. Though a lot of my work involved practical artmaking, I also described my artmaking with words and I developed concepts that  brought my artmaking into relation to other people's creative work. I also related my emerging installation and drawing practice to themes that are relevant in the critical discussion of culture, material practice, and how we engage with the world with our bodies. Such themes can be quite abstract topics and whilst I find it very fascinating to engage with them, I found it very useful to make drawings, using a digital drawing tablet, to think such themes through, write key words down and make drawings that show simple scenes of my artmaking. Making such drawings made it easier to consider such abstract content. The physical actions of drawing, moving the stylus on the tablet and following the path of the cursor on the screen with my eyes brought an embodied, felt dimension to my thoughts. The abstract ideas that had initially been triggered by practical making, now became a felt, physical reality again.