This is where I explain who I am and what I’m planning to do.
My name is Alison Simpson and I’m a sculptor. That is, I’m an artist and I tend to make things which are three dimensional, these days mostly out of paper. I went to Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University (many years ago now) and have been a working artist for at least half of my adult life. I’ve always made things, even when I was tiny, and the process of making has always been a natural and pleasurable thing to do.
I spent the first dozen years of my life as an artist after college working in bronze, iron and steel, mostly on public art schemes – sculpture and street furniture around schools and town centres – and there are still some of my works out there. I found however that the thing I enjoyed most was working with people in those environments, understanding their experiences and opinions and maybe helping things change for the better (which might not involve having a sculpture outside the door!)
A long spell working with community groups and social enterprises followed, planning, getting and spending resources for various ‘change for the better’ projects, and this is the thing that represents the other half of my adult life.
On the way I found I was handling a lot of paper, and writing long documents. As this paper tended to be largely a source of angst, it occurred to me that I might do something more interesting with it.. and there might be a bit of art in it.
Turns out you can do quite a lot of interesting things with paper, and I really haven’t touched the sides yet.