we are allowed to be okay
Like so many of us, many years of my life were absent of creativity for creativity's sake. Having always been very explorative and expressive as a young person, somewhere along the line everything needed to be "good" by someone else's standards in order to be worth something.
With an incredible amount of gratitude and privilege, I was able to re-connect to that spark, little by little and all at once. A bit of writing here, some drawing there, I even tried my hand at jewellery making at one stage. Over the course of four years, writing and drawing were what really stuck and eventually this book was born. A collection of poetry, prose and hand-drawn illustrations, my hope is that this book will provide two things:
1. somewhere soft to land where you just might find some reflection of your own thoughts and feelings in these words
2. a reminder that we don't need to "be creative" to be creative. And that it can be expressed in so many different ways. Creativity isn't just about making art. It's about your joy, curiosity and who you are in this world. Which I am willing to bet is pretty cool whoever you are.
To keep this project alive, please keep reading to find out how you can get involved.
about this project
This collection was born after three or four years of (inconsistently) capturing musings, whilst navigating a journey of reconnecting to my self and my life. Without realising, I had captured this journey in a way that would go on to provide me with a framework in the future when things got really tough. It was almost like I'd tapped into some place that was allowing me to bottle up the wisdom that I was going to forget, and need to remember in years to come.
To release this work into the world, I have illustrated and printed 150 copies and left them in random places across the UK - coffee shops, book swaps, libraries, with friends, with strangers, hoping they'll find the right people.
I want to say that none of this was done with intention or a grand vision. It was made up of a million little moments, that are continue to unfold in this one, and this one, and this one.
If a copy has found you, hello. I'd love to know where you found it and where it's going to next.
