This site I dedicate to my loving daughter andrea who in adolesence was diagnosed with cancer and died at the tender age of 17 in 2001

My art work has been the backbone of my existence and reflects the most significant journey of my life, the loss of my daughter.
Art started for me in a therepy group after my daughter died. I became consummed in it to help me get through each day and never realised that I would be going on to do access courses and later securing a place at university.
It was in university that I started to connect my artwork to my daughter, which I based on a series of journeys through the microscopic cell structure of different cancer forms.

I have always found it hard to portray the ugliness of cancer in my work, because I could not visually see it on my child. All I could see was my beautiful darling daughter with always a warm smile, light in her eyes, full of joy and happiness, which in art, are accossiated with bright colours. These colours in my work express the strength of my
loss of Andrea
My grief is the foundation that has fueled my creativity and been the driving force through all my art.

I feel that people make art for very many different reasons. But for sincere artists it is a form of emotional
reponse, art being a compulsion to emulate and project specific feelings from your inner self onto the canvas.
I believe that great art comes from personal experiences.

I would like to thank Lynn Jones, former Head Mistress of my daughters school, who encouraged me to join the art therepy group which was taught by Marci Robinson who also gave me support. This became the first step in my long journey in art.

Art still to this day helps me to live along side my greif.

Tess Ellis Bridges