Life is like a canvas – it starts off more or less blank. As you grow you begin to put your mark on it… • first with sticky finger prints, • moving on to fairly crude/barely recognisable images in crayon, and • progressing to more refined and detail images. The canvas can be repainted and old images painted over but they’ll never go – they’ll form the foundations/ghosts of the next images that emerge. You’re not restricted to a single medium; there’s a whole range of choose from – fingers, crayons, felt tip pens, pastel, charcoal, paint, colouring pencils, fine liners, ink, virtual inks & mediums. For the work section of my Canvas I used to say “I’m an ecologist”. Technically this is true, I have a degree in ecology, an ecologically focused PhD, I work as an ecological consultant, I undertake surveys of habitats and species and I interpret the results. But I’ve come to realise I’m more than that … I’m me. The mediums that I’ve used creating my Canvas have been wide and varied and don’t just stem from my career but all will ultimately influence my career to varying extents and my career will equally influence my time outside of work.As I create my evolving ‘masterpiece’ of life (for every life is a masterpiece in its own right) I work towards three key aspirations:1. Continual engagement in the natural world so that I never reach a plateau in my knowledge & experiences;2. Help educate people to see & connect to the natural world around them & what they may walk past daily yet don’t notice;3. Share my ecological knowledge through using my artistic abilities.Every day provides new opportunities and challenges.