Artist statement

Hello!

I am an award winning nature writer and performance poet working with digital media. I am passionate about the protection of nature.

My ambition is to persuade others to protect the natural world.

I believe the best way to do this is by encouraging human connection with nature. My practice encourages this connection through stories that are entertaining, inclusive and accessible. Some stories are true (“The Trapped Doe”) and some are inspired by the natural world (“The Headless Horseman”). All celebrate the beauty and joy of nature.

I tell my stories through published writing and performance. Often my performance is multi media, a prose or poetry script performed with film and photography as a cinematic backdrop, and a set of static puppets.

Whatever their ultimate medium, my stories start in writing. I write prose and poetry for the page, radio and stage. When I start a new piece I think only about the story it tells. I don’t think about the style. Sometimes as I write, images unspool in my head as a storyboard. Then I know the piece is destined for the stage with film as a backdrop. This is how “110 m.p.h.” was created.

My first poetry collection “Motherhoodlum” was published by Jawbone in 2022. Signposting the “nature direction” of my work, the collection pivots on a series of four poems about my relationship with the Earth (“MotherEarth: sorrow”).

I learned that to persuade others to protect nature I needed to entice people into my world. My work developed as engaging stories that animate nature and enchant with folklore and legend. Published in 2024 by Cranborne Chase National Landscape and Chase & Chalke “The Headless Horseman” is a good example of this.

I started working on community poems after running a couple of workshops. Community poems are a great way to make a difference to people’s connection with nature. It is amazing how meaningful an exchange can be when you ask a complete stranger to write a few words about what landscape means to them. Sometimes I feel a shift in that person, an opening of doors and a budding of pride. I find this wonderful. The first public community poem I did was for Bournemouth Writing Festival in 2024. Passers by committed their hearts and souls to the work, which was completed in a single day. The end result was an explosion of people’s loves and hopes, a creation with a life of its own.

I started my podcast “Nature Talks With Humans” because I was hearing many stories of connection with Nature from people and I wanted to preserve these stories as evergreen. The podcast is going well: https://naturetalkswithhumans.transistor.fm/

My present WIP is a full-length nature memoir. The first draft is written. I am now editing it. Alongside this I am developing a new epic poem for stage. It’s a feel-good story about trees!

I use film and photography across social media, too e.g. Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DFaz7i7suwF/?next=%2F) and TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@estellephillips/video/7369328762011372833

Thank you for your interest in my work. Byeee!