Biography
A sudden, stress-induced cardiac arrest at age 31 completely redefined my trajectory in life. It offered an unexpected and profound opportunity to reassess where I was going, now with the certain knowledge that time is fleeting and nothing is given. Choosing my own path over prestige, I left behind an unfinished PhD in medical statistics to dedicate myself entirely to a career in the visual arts.
Beginning my journey as a traditional potter making functional ware, my practice has since evolved into a deeper conceptual exploration. Today, I operate a dedicated visual arts studio in Lancaster, balancing a rigorous studio practice with bespoke commissions and community education. Specialising in ceramics, my sculptural work embraces the tactile nature of clay while seamlessly integrating homegrown natural fibres and found objects.
You can read my full artist statement below, and please click here if you would like to read my story in more detail.
Studio Experiences & Community
Alongside my private practice, I am passionate about facilitating creative space for others to counter the pressures of modern burnout. I specialise in curating bespoke, tailored experiences, including focused one-to-one sessions and private group workshops.
I also host a long-running, collaborative Saturday Pot Club. This open-door morning session is a welcoming, friendly space designed for individuals of all skill levels to experiment with raw clay, connect with community, and explore their own creative intuition. You can read more and sign up through my studio website.
Selected Exhibitions
-
'Dissent Works', Group Exhibition with works from the Collection, Peter Scott Gallery, 2026
-
'Touch Me', DYCP Showcase, Assembly Arts, 2026
-
'Fascination of Plants', Lancaster Environment Centre Group Exhibition, Assembly Arts, 2026
-
'Be Transparent', Northern Design Festival Group Exhibition, The Storey, 2025
-
'Watersheds, II: Works about words', Group Exhibition,The Storey, 2024
-
'Introducing', Studio Opening Showcase, Assembly Arts, 2023
-
'Shared stories', Northern Potters Association Group Exhibition, The Storey, 2022
-
'Entangled Festival', Ensemble Projects Online Group Exhibition, Lancaster University, 2021
Grants & Awards
-
Develop Your Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England, 2025
-
Business Development Award, Lancaster University, 2021
Education & Professional Development
-
Professional Mentorship, with Dr Victoria Gray (Artist & Researcher), 2026 – Present
-
Business Growth Programme, The Growing Club, Lancaster, 2024
-
Understanding Glazes (Online), Ceramic Materials Workshop, 2021
-
Business Development Programme, Lancaster University Enterprise Centre, 2021
-
Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Cornwall SCITT, 2014
-
MSc in Statistics, Lancaster University, 2011
-
BSc in Mathematics, University of Birmingham, 2010
Artist Statement
I am an artist based in Lancaster. I create a mix of figurative sculpture, assemblages and vessels, which I view as a form of self-portraiture. My practice references heritage crafts and ancient peoples, creating work that is often domestic in size, and which evokes a sense of being grounded and connected to the earth, our histories, our rituals and our roots. My ceramics pieces are often glazed in the rich greens of growth, or left earthy and unglazed. Much of my sculptural work integrates natural elements and found objects.
Over the years I have had to learn and relearn who I am, and how I connect to the world. I don't shy away from difficult topics, and much of my artistic practice explores the use of sculptural neologisms, invented visual ciphers and physical puns to map out intensely personal, sometimes dark memories, and allow them to be digested by myself and others. At the heart of my practice, these neologisms navigate the fine boundaries between what is tragic, what is serious, what is beautiful and what is absurd.
As both an artist and a teacher, I use fragments of nature, play, and imagination to help people reconnect with the parts of themselves that get lost under pressure and burnout, engaging with life’s mess through surrealism, and see my role as an artist as a facilitator for others to dig into the past, and dream up something new.
The Memory of Clay & Archaeoacoustics
Ever since I was little, I have been a collector of fragments: rocks, feathers, dried flowers, old family photos and broken pieces of pottery. Today, my work mirrors this lifelong habit, and I view the composition of fractured sculptural parts as an ongoing, fluid process of curation and collection. I arrange, rearrange, and alter these elements over time, photographing each temporary composition before it shifts into something new. These photographs and these objects act as the visual memory my mind cannot hold, capturing individual moments that stand out or resonate.
Humans have worked with clay for thousands of years, and it is often said that the medium itself holds a memory. I agree. As materials go, I find clay is the closest thing to the concept of memory, and even more so how memory is linked to identity. It's malleable - You can add to it, subtract from it, and easily change its shape, yet it remains fundamentally the same material you started with until fired.
There is even a debunked but beautiful myth in archaeoacoustics that if ancient pottery were played like a vinyl record, we could hear the voices of the past. This idea is part of why I see vessels as self-portraits of their maker. It also makes me wonder if, many years from now, someone might unearth a broken piece of my own work, or my student's work, and add it to their collection. I hope, if that happens, it will act as a talisman for them, a reminder that others were here before, what an amazing thing. To speak to the future, the past, and each other.
Fragmented Embodiment & Surrealism
"There's a natural conversation between Rae Tribbick and Joan Miró's work: Surrealism in the Past and Surrealism in the Now"
- Jacob Cordingley, Curator of Dissents works at the Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University 2026
Much of my work explores fragmented embodiment, perception and memory through a contemporary surrealist lens. Each element within an assemblage or collection can be understood as holding or representing its own memory. Some of these memories are my own, while others are stories that have been shared with me. Memory can be partial, inherited, imagined, even fragmented, and still accumulate into something that feels like a whole.
For me, surrealism is partly about refusing the expectation that things need to fit neatly into one category or have one clear purpose. In a time of increased polarisation and 'othering', surrealism, with its inherent encouragement of free thought, offers a way of resisting this-or-that, didactic thinking. It allows for ambiguity, contradiction and unexpected connections.
Terracotta hands and feet, made visibly hollow, could be read as vessels, but they are impractical as such. They sit somewhere between functional objects, craft and sculpture without fully belonging to either. As such, my practice is not about making overtly oppositional statements; it is more about making space for ambiguity, different ways of thinking, and things that don't quite fit.