'I went from selling other people's art to making my own and now specialise in machine embroidery in north Shropshire'
Art has long been a huge part of Dr Jack Roberts’ life. He has studied art to the highest level and lectured internationally, built a reputation as a respected art dealer and working with museums and arts organisations as a cultural consultant.
Creating his own art had ended up on the backburner but during the pandemic, he decided it was finally time to make it a priority.
“I wanted to make art for a long time, starting as an art dealer back in 2009. One of the ideas behind becoming an art dealer was that it was a way to help me sell my own art but what actually happened was I started selling everybody else’s art,” says Jack, who lives in the village of Woore in North Shropshire and specialises in machine embroidery.
“I think the business of life took over and working with other projects and museums and activities, my art fizzled out and went into the background.
“During the pandemic I was having a think about how I could make my art a priority. Even if I only spent five or so minutes on my art every day, I would be connected to my practice every day.
“And then within a few months, stuff would have begun to build where as before it could go six months and I wouldn’t have made anything,” he adds.
This ‘daily practice’ of sewing every day led to Jack sharing his art on Instagram later that year. “Within six months, art had become the priority. I was doing other things in the background but they were all secondary to my art practice,” he says. "It was all down to daily practice. I was continually connected to my art, my art was continually developing and I was continually sharing my art.
