Category: Mental Health

In my childhood, I was fascinated by the underwater world. Ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans, I was obsessed with catching glimpses of fish, snails, crustaceans, cephalopods, plants, coral and on and on… an abundance of lifeforms beyond imagining. It amazed and enchanted me to know that there were so many hidden worlds on our […]

I wonder if the problem was never me. I wonder if there was never anything wrong with me to begin with. I wonder if I just perceived the chains around my throat a little earlier. I wonder if I simply reacted against the oppression the suffocation the limitations the violence of factory farming children through […]

It’s actually happening, I’m finally going to do my first ever solo show! “Oh Yuck, It’s Me”, a show about finding the will to live even while the world crumbles and burns around you, is debuting at one of my favourite venues, The Butterfly Club as part of The Melbourne Fringe Festival! Though I’m absolutely […]

So many of my friends would have already guessed it by all the stuff I’ve been sharing lately but I’m going to just come out officially and say that I am autistic. No, not instead of ADHD, many people have both; in fact, there is a great deal of overlap which makes me feel if […]

(I’ve felt so blocked for the last few years which is unusual for me. My head feels foggy, the executive dysfunction is real but I’m going to push past it because I desperately want to get back to a place where I can express myself more freely. I’m just going to… write and see what […]

I used to feel so much shame about the fact that it’s really easy for me to make myself paint in the studio – to the point where I very often haven’t let myself paint in the studio because I’ve felt I’ve not done enough “important” tasks such as going to the supermarket, life admin […]

Content warning: writing here about fatphobia, body shaming and my relationship to my own body. I’ve always hesitated to write about my own experiences with my body because they pale in comparison to the discrimination faced by bigger people but I was thinking about these things when I painted this little piece a few nights […]

Lockdown has me awake late and sleeping until midday and tonight being no exception, I decided to spend some time in my studio. I did a crap drawing that I didn’t finish and then a crap illustration as one of the tasks for an online course that I’m taking to try keep myself inspired and […]

Learning to develop a less critical inner voice is a revealing process. The more mindful I become about speaking kindly to myself, the more I realise how for most of my life I’ve been on autopilot, ruthlessly criticising and also anxiously second guessing myself for everything. For example, while getting ready for work this morning, […]

Did you know that overexplaining can be a symptom of trauma? When a person grows accustomed, over a long time, to being criticised and/or disregarded, they learn that if they just explain as much as they possibly can, perhaps, just perhaps, someone might at last listen. Truly listen. It doesn’t work though, instead people tune […]