Rip It Up – Reading and the Punk Rock Revolution

Cathy co-curated this exhibition with London artist Johnny Deluxe at Reading Museum. While Cathy was studying photography at Berkshire College of Art & Design she often took photos of this group of punks in Reading.

These photos, combined with Johnny’s own much-toured and much-loved 100 Punks exhibition became the Rip It Up exhibition, with the addition of memorabilia, clothes, fanzines, personal photos, newspaper articles and film lent by Reading punks themselves.

A visual record of the Punk Rock scene in Reading 1976 – 1985, the bands, the clubs, the pubs and people as told by the punks themselves.

The Life and Times of Paddington Bear

Cathy helped to curate this exhibition with Catherine Roberts and Karen Jankel, Michael Bond’s daughter. She also painted a mural for the exhibition depicting an Ivor Wood style room from the popular Paddington Bear television series, for the children’s reading corner.

It celebrates the famous bear from Darkest Peru and his creator, Michael Bond, who spent his childhood in Reading. It tells the story from the very first book A Bear Called Paddington, published in 1958, to the most recent title: Here and Now
Published in 2008, exactly fifty years later.

Michael Bond opened the exhibition and was entertained by a group of children from Katesgrove School in Reading, who read him one of his Paddington stories.

Lottery Ball Hats

Cathy was commissioned by Camelot to design four hats to advertise the main Lotto game for The National Lottery Group.

The hats were worn at Ascot on Ladies Day by four lottery winners and they caused quite a stir. They were featured on the televised highlights of the day on both ITV and BBC coverage, were given a page in a National newspaper and were mentioned on Radio 2 the next day.