Inward Bound

​

This mixed media piece captures the journeys my family has made starting with my father’s move from the UK to the southern tip of Africa. The theme of the piece is that no matter how far you travel you take your demons with you and as I say in the text in this piece some of mine are dyslexia, me too, racism and sexism. The sea monsters who’s mouths are based on the C and V of the alphabet was where the idea for the piece started and obviously represent the first of my demons on the list, dyslexia.

​

Art has always been a way to process and understand our world and our place in it. Neurodivergence often denies us access to the normal social arenas where we can thrive and build self-esteem. We are often called lazy, stupid, unruly, or just plain weird which I believe is why we gravitate to the arts, the sciences, sports and entrepreneurship where we can thrive. It is in these areas that we can draw on our big unruly minds and succeed at something that society deems valuable. So, we get autistic people who turn their special interest into their career and ADHD people who channel their energy into sports, what is counter-intuitive however, is that many of us turn our weakness into strengths, so we have dyslexic writers and dyspraxic dancers. We as a group are endlessly resilient but at a personal cost, the cost of this resiliance is the focus of the work I do.