Burnout. It can feel a lot like depression. A serious state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, feeling defeated and even negative spiralling thoughts sometimes paired with uncontrollable crying.  We all have a limit of how much we can do in a day, week or month and when we reach it your body and mind shuts down to the point where it can feel like a depressive episode but shorter lasting (anything from a day to a few weeks). It's your bodies way of protecting you, repairing the damage you've done from over doing it by forcing you to stop everything and sleep or chill out (even if you don't want to, it's not optional when burnout hits). It can also arise from long term stress and how often you experience burnout really depends on your lifestyle, how many stressors you have, exactly how much you task yourself to get done in short spaces of time and everyone's limit is different.  Burnout is extremely common, the majority of people who experience it don't

Healing isn't linear. You can overcome some things and end up struggling with them later down the line, this is normal, remember life is like a heartbeat it goes up and down so naturally healing is the same; some weeks you make so much progress it's almost scary and unimaginable that you were ever struggling at all, then other days it can be like you never healed anything at all. Don't beat yourself up we all have a limit and burnout is a thing, without the downs you can't appreciate all the ups you've had in your healing journey. Healing isn't something that happens over night it takes hard work and persistence not to give up on yourself/your journey. And even if you do give up, it's not too late to try again.  Some non invasive ways I've personally healed is through art making based off feelings and thoughts, music that makes me feel good and building "stronger roots" like community or basics like organisation; having a grid calendar is a goo

So I tried magic mushrooms for the first and only time, I did some artwork and I was tripping my absolute balls off from it like it was coming up off the page being all trippy and vibrant, THE MOST THERAPEUTIC SHIT MAN. I've never experienced anything quite like it but the artwork produced is just insane, every piece had its own story of what it was trying to portray or show me.  Shrooms' also taught me how to draw trippy creatures and I kinda want one of them tattooed on me. I had a good and a bad trip I probably took too much for a first time though, basically I looked at my trippydraws phone screen and it unlocked a WHOLE NEW LEVEL that I weren't ready for and kinda sent me west for a sec. Luckily I was at home, I could talk myself out of it and it didn't last that long but it is VERY easy to have a bad trip on shrooms', ya gotta be in a healthy mindset which i wasn't and in a comfortable location with people you trust, always have a trip sitter (someone with

I started a lot of shit in 2021, from handmade A3-A7 books and even smaller miniature books/art to jewellery making to glass jar decorating/sensory bottle making to painting clothing and hand stitching art...I went a bit mad with ideas of side projects, started more stuff than I could complete at the time.  I also made some cardboard/recycled material pre-painted/pre-drawn collage ephemera bits to use as an addition to the painted textured background, make it more 3D, this later developed into a time travelling element within my work.  I used fluid art and glitter glue to create some backgrounds which turned out ace!  I didn't do much experimenting like I did in previous years, I focused on fluid art and trying out various types of upcycling. I used paint pens and other pens (normal, marker and gel pens). I did experiment with tape however, I did a few books that are funky with the tape addition. I produced so much it's patchy is my memory a lot of the pieces i barely remember

Trauma. We've all experienced some form of it whether big or small...life is like a heartbeat it goes up and down, it's inevitable at some point you'll face trauma. "Forgive yourself for the survival patterns and traits you picked up whilst enduring trauma. Forgive yourself for not knowing better and being who you needed to be at the time".  Recovering from trauma can take years or weeks depending on the severity. Sometimes medication might be necessary or some kinda therapy. Best believe there's an unreal amount of different types out there; from Talking Therapies to Exercise Therapy or even Expressive Arts Therapy which is all the creative arts in one therapy like drama, art, music and dance but these creative arts are also separate singular therapies too. "Art therapy is a less threatening approach for those experiencing emotional disturbances or trauma".  Trauma isn't always one extreme event it can be lots of little ongoing situations that a

Stoner culture, let's talk .  When you first start smoking the devils lettuce it's like a goal or an achievement to be a proper stoner, it's all fun and games in the beginning but what many don't realise until it's too late (myself included) is the reality what of that actually means...to become a serious addict to the devils lettuce is what it means. Now don't get me wrong I love to have a puff just like the next man but there comes a time where you realise being a stoner isn't a good thing. I lost my memory completely for a long period of time because I smoked with the intention to forget *not the smartest of ideas* I did forget but also couldn't remember new experiences and things I needed to do which made life even harder. I didn't know if my memory would ever come back... Trying to cut down or quit once your addicted feels almost impossible, they say it's just a mental battle which is partly true but in my experience, after smoking it for so

  So I had this idea to create a Level UPPP zine, a handmade cosmic illustrated book with a reference to the 'x triangle circle square' I use within my work; I did this to represent life's a game, each level teaches you something but this is like a little guide of spiritual quotes to improve your life...like i said my work was spiritually oriented in 2020 it made sense at the time.  Anddd that's the end of the level UPPP zine, which piece was your favourite?   I produced this 2nd June 2020 and is one of my favourite books I've ever made! I love the colours and illustration vibes from the watercolour pencils and metallic paint pen use. For the background I think I used receipts and/or junk mail magazine booklets. I made 3 books in total but only created one finished book; I originally intended on using this as a draft and scanning it to create the level UPPP zine properly but copyright is thing for the quotes so I can't use them - imma have to rethink this one.