Added Sep 2, 2025
Since I discovered the term in the early noughties, I've been calling myself a "cultural creative" i.e. someone whose core values include altruism, self-actualisation and spirituality. The term was broad enough to cover the wide range of creative paths that I had trodden up to that point and would continue to expand upon.
What I hadn't been able to admit to myself, or to anyone else, was that I had spent my life thinking I was the "ugly duckling" — never "fitting in". As I was doing the series that I called "The Corona Collection" it dawned on me that my "difference" was in fact my strength: yes, I'm a woman who was born into a world still dominated by men, and left-handed in a world designed for right-handed people, but as such, I'm part of a generation quietly getting on with the business of transforming the world I live in. The final university dissertation that enabled me to become an Art Therapist was even entitled "Let's make a difference" because that was precisely what I intended to do after graduating and is indeed what I did. Until my nervous system was little more than a pile of ashes and I was all burned out.