About Me and this Blog

Although a gifted artist, I rebelled against expectations early in life and I orginally started my training as a Chiropodist (formerly MSSCh MBChA) before moving into the biomedical sciences (BSc Hons) where I became interested in both neuroscience, art, artists and shamans. I then found my way back to my interests in art and material culture by way of the Social Sciences (MA in Art History and Archaeology) where I studied under Prof. John Onians, and so contributed (in a small way) to the founding of his neurohistory, neuroarchaeology and neuroanthropology of art world-wide. You could say I went from the feet to the head! I was lucky then to be able to work with the contemporary artists El Anatsui, Machiko Agano and Fiona Foley, and to have met and discussed neuroesthetics with Prof. Semir Zeki, all of which informed my academic studies. Deeply interested in Ehrenzweig's classic book The Hidden Order of Art since the age of 17, I was notably rebuked by his son for making an erroneous wikipedia page on his father, which I duly amended, and considered it a privilege! I never got around to studying my PhD, and was unable to pursue a career in the this field so my input into art history is rather anecdotal if not comical! My academic career as a "Renaissance Man" thus ended before it really had begun and in 2008 I began a career in Public Service, which I found met my own core values in contributing to society.

I started my barefoot journey in 2014 when on holiday and having not packed running shoes, decided to run barefoot in a paddock like a caveman (interestingly it was on the estate of the late paleoanthropologist Prof. Bernard Grant Campbell). And at this time I became more and more interested in barefoot running, shamanism and neuroarchaeology, which I added to with bushcraft and woodcarving and whittling.

In 2015 I created this blog to document my "counch to 5k" barefoot running...but my butterfly mind took me to many different places documented in this blog, and in 2022 after a almost a decade of personal change (divorce, redundancy, marriage, chronic illness etc)  I changed the name to Walkabout and Whittles, to best encompass my world. Peruse my blog as you like. You'll be surprised at what you find.