Born in Sunderland in 1977, Dawn’s initial experience of ceramics was at Newcastle College in 1995-6, she then headed north to Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1999. After a break from ceramics and a period of work in the film and television industry, Dawn went to study at the National Centre for Ceramics Wales at Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2007-8.

Dawn's work has featured in numerous exhibitions across the UK and she has represented the UK in Denmark at the European Ceramic Context 2010 exhibition and in France at a WCC-Europe exhibition.

In January 2011 Dawn was awarded the prestigious Arts Foundation Fellowship for Ceramics.

Dawn’s practice has always centred around the exploration of a personal landscape. She says of recent work,

“There is a certain feeling of familiarity that a glazed, ceramic object can evoke. In a traditional form ceramic has the ability to represent an ‘elsewhere’ in a familiar domestic setting and I am interested in the shift of consciousness (whether it be a memory or a notion) that it can cause. Because the familiar allows us to make sense of our environment, I gather glimpses of it and literally lay them on the table, individual elements recorded as ceramic objects, as an investigation into how we view and interact with our surroundings.”

In addition to her studio practice, Dawn has taught at Glasgow School of Art and John Wheatley College in Glasgow and in Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, as well as running art based projects for various client groups within the west of Scotland. She currently works as a programme assistant at Cove Park an International artist residency organisation on the west coast of Scotland.