Sharon Adams tells stories through crafted objects. Deeply rooted in the farming landscape, her practice is directed by an intuitive response to the local and her emerging relationship to her homeplace. Seeking out points of connection with its lines and surfaces, textures and patterns she produces objects and drawings informed by a life-long relationship with a landscape that is both familiar and ever-changing.
Sharon is a coach, having trained with RD1st in 2020, and is a member of the Association for Coaching.
How do you describe what you do?
I’ve only recently started coaching and I want to use my training to help people connect with the core of their creative practice and the space their practice occupies within their life and other commitments.
What would you say is your style or approach?
I take a person-centred approach so the individual has room to explore their ideas without me imposing external expectations onto them. I listen for connections and/or contradictions that might not be obvious to them and let those steer the process.
What sort of clients do you enjoy working with?
People come to coaching for all sorts of reasons, and it’s great when there’s a particular thread they want to follow. It might be about having external accountability during a specific project, or exploring different options at a time of change.
Are there any particular issues/topics/themes that you specialise in?
I’m about to embark on a block of work with makers who have chronic health conditions. I have Fibromyalgia, and have a particular interest in the challenges of managing unpredictable energy levels.
How does your background, your artistic practice or your previous career etc affect/influence how you work?
Before art school, I was MD of a small events company in London specialising in personal development and wellbeing. My experience of art school was hugely transformative, leading me to re-locate back to Northern Ireland where I now live and work from an old stone farmhouse. Coaching brings those two strands together, exploring creativity as an expression of self.
What motivates you to do this work? What do you love about it?
Alongside my personal practice I use my events industry experience to support arts organisations with project management and marketing. While delivering marketing workshops to creatives I noticed that people often get anxious when they’re not sure how to describe their work online. Coaching is a great process to get the core of what you make and why. With that clarity, communications flow more easily.
What else would you like people to know about you/working with you?
Despite 25 years of city life, I’m still a farmer’s daughter and take a very down to earth approach to juggling all that planning and doing and being.
You can find Sharon on Instagram @herdingfish and on her coaching website herdingfish.co.uk