Creative Journey

Content note

This post shares lived experiences related to housing instability, trauma, mental health distress, and recovery. It is written from personal experience and focuses on reflection and growth. Please read with care and take breaks if needed. Support is available. In Australia, Lifeline is available on 13 11 14.

Creativity has always been part of my life, long before I had language for what it meant or why it mattered. As a kid, I watched people around me making things and felt pulled toward it instinctively. I started creating simply because it felt natural. Drawing, crafting, making dream catchers, experimenting with materials, anything that let my hands stay busy and my mind wander. Creativity was playful, curious, and safe.

As my life became more unstable, access to creativity faded. Survival took priority, and there was little room for making things just for the sake of it. For a long time, creativity felt distant, like something I used to know how to do but could not reach anymore. It was not gone, just buried under stress, fear, and constant disruption.

As I began receiving more consistent mental health support, creativity slowly returned. I reconnected with it not as a goal or outcome, but as a way to regulate, express myself, and find moments of calm. Creating helped me feel grounded. It gave me a way to process things that were too complex or heavy to put into words. It became a place where I could be present and focused, where my nervous system could settle.

Over time, that reconnection grew into something bigger. I began sharing my work publicly and exhibiting at places like Tanks Arts Centre, Kite Gallery, Crate 59, the Cairns Show, and The Junction. These experiences helped me see my work not just as personal expression, but as something that could connect with others.

I now work as an artist alongside my peer work. I take on commissions, freelance projects, and donate artwork to organisations and causes that matter to me, including Mission Australia, The Junction Clubhouse, and rehabilitation centres. I also run workshops, supporting others to use creativity as a tool for expression, healing, and self-connection. I believe deeply that creativity should be accessible, not precious or intimidating, and that everyone deserves a space to create without judgement.

Being creative also helps me reconnect with my younger self. When your childhood holds a lot of turmoil, that connection can be hard to access. Creativity gives me a way back. It reminds me of curiosity, play, and imagination, parts of myself that existed long before survival took over. That reconnection feels important, grounding, and healing.

These days, I sell prints of my artwork, hand printed on demand in Cairns and priced to be affordable. I want art to be something people can live with and enjoy, not something that feels out of reach. Alongside this, I work closely with Tropica Store and Studio, building my portfolio, experimenting with new mediums, and expanding my practice. This includes digital work, graphic design, printmaking, and learning how to design and manage my own website and share my work more confidently.

Music has always run alongside my visual art practice. I have been singing for as long as I can remember. As a child, I played instruments and gravitated naturally toward music. I fell in love with the piano and taught myself to play over many years. In year nine, I wrote my first song and posted it to YouTube. Seeing how others connected with it showed me that my voice could reach beyond my own experience.

I have continued creating music ever since. I describe my sound as Luna music, something emotional, reflective, and atmospheric. I write, sing, and produce my own songs, collaborate with other artists, and have begun creating my own beats. Music, like visual art, gives me a way to communicate things that sit beneath the surface.

Creativity has been a constant companion throughout my life. It has supported me through instability, helped me rebuild during recovery, and now shapes how I work, connect, and advocate. I believe in creativity as a force for good. Not as something reserved for artists, but as a tool anyone can use to express themselves, process life, and feel a sense of agency.

These creative adventures are ongoing. They shift, evolve, and expand as I do. What stays the same is the reason behind them, to create honestly, to share openly, and to encourage others to create for the simple, powerful act of creating.