We’ve been going to @autographabp ’s Family SEND programme for several years, and when I say these sessions have changed our lives, I’m not exaggerating. They have exposed me to the best of humanity and to some of the most creative souls. Every time we attend a workshop, I’m reminded of what the charity and all the people involved are doing to foster personal creative development, promote respect for and appreciation of difference, encourage empathy and reciprocity, and act ethically towards people. They actually do what they say they do; their values are in all their actions. From day one, every member - even the lovely people at reception - have welcomed us with open arms. This may not seem exceptional, but it is. Far too often at cultural institutions, we are “othered” and not made to feel welcome. We need more Autographs! #specialeducationalneeds #inclusionmatters #artforall #inclusionanddiversity #neurodiversity @livvy_murdoch @amy.bik @anyamustoo @bealesabout

More work to share as I create my website. I have always been interested in interrogating memory as both archive and erasure. Cycles of repetition and concealment within familial structures; tension between childhood perception and adult consciousness; and themes of freedom, entrapment, transcendence and collapse intrigue me as they embody the paradox of a self caught between opposing impulses. This is “The Family Secret”, created with masks, duct tape, and permanent marker.

At long last, creating my website. Sharing some works while in the process of doing so. My practice is rooted in both material experimentation and conceptual rigour, frequently engaging with Freudian and post-Freudian ideas, examining how identity is formed, fractured, and continually renegotiated. This is “The Luxury of Forgetting”, created with frames and 99 Polaroids.

So Sonia Delaunay, Georgia O’Keefe, and Hilma af Klint walk into a bar and spend the evening talking about the birds and the bees, vulvas and nipples, and the space between the abstract and the figurative. In walks @loiehollowell to join them. I teeter between my love of the figurative and abstract, and these works from Hollowell’s solo show ‘Overview Effect’ - on @pacegallery London until 23 May - fulfil that slightly-more-obvious suggestion of the figure, of genitalia, mammary glands, and perhaps the ripples of orgasm. I’m taken back to seventh grade biology and geology classes, with flagella and cilia, and volcanoes and plutonic intrusion, respectively, albeit with unerring symmetry in Hollowell’s works. There is no doubt Hollowell understands chromatics and the values and harmonies of colours. She has alluded to her previous matching of colour to experience, but is now more interested in allowing colour itself be the experience - “its own experience within the presence of the making”. The text in the borders of some of the works offers either stream of consciousness writing, notes to self as if in studies for future works, or even thoughts on being a mother and artist: “more deep blue in dick tip”, “pointillist boob tips come forward”, and “why and how is there never enough time. that is the biggest thing one loses in parenthood. time, time, time!” Said Hollowell: “…I think getting pregnant, having kids, realizing the true cyclical nature of the body, not just the period cycles but the actual cellular changing, and then the postpartum repercussions. It just made it so clear that this is a subject matter for me that’s just going to keep going on and on. And also, I think I really felt a shift when I turned forty. It’s a real shift in my body, in terms of energy and momentum. This is like the beginning elements of aging. But I’m very excited to explore menopause. Hopefully by looking forward to getting to explore it as a subject matter I can counteract the fear I have of it…” #loiehollowell

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the US. As a dual citizen, I’ve always told my older son that if he forgets the UK Mother’s Day, he can always redeem himself eight weeks later. Seemed a relevant day to share a few photos from a series I created - ‘S(mother)ed’ - which depicts a language familiar to me and probably to several mothers of disabled and/or neurodivergent and/or mentally unstable children. Here is an excerpt from an essay I recently wrote for an art exhibition featuring artist-mother/carers leading similar lives as me: “Mothers – who are more likely to be the ‘default parent’ – experience higher levels of stress, fatigue, and psychological distress, handling about 71% of household mental load tasks. They are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, and societal pressure for ‘intensive motherhood’ can lead to severe emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. When you add a disabled and/or neurodivergent child/ren, and/or mentally unstable child/ren into the equation, paired with the cognitive and emotional labour, the tangible domestic planning, and the ‘worry work’ required to care for the child/ren, the scales tip. According to Seltzer et al. (2010), some mothers of autistic children can present with clinically significant trauma-related symptoms associated with their child’s behaviours, experiencing similar physiological stress profiles as combat soldiers, Holocaust survivors, and individuals diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “For these mothers, creating art is the fight and the flight. It is the amygdala whispering to the frontal cortex and asking it to engage in cognitive reframing: to consider constraint, compression, capriciousness as mediums, to incorporate fear and anxiety, prolonged stress, frustration and anger into pièces de résistance, both literally and figuratively.”

Today was the last day of ‘Declarative Language’, a group show for which I had the absolute privilege to write an essay (link in bio). Art acts as a powerful catalyst for change by translating complex social, political, and emotional issues into universal visual languages. It fosters empathy, challenges authority, educates, and sparks critical dialogues. This show presented so many opportunities to have below-the-surface conversations on motherhood; parenting neurodivergent, disabled, or mentally ill children; the process of grief; medical and social care; systemic inequality; education; and balancing self, child/ren, and art practice, among so many others. The venue, the artists, the works, and all the programming have been a wonderful confirmation for me of art’s ability to transvalue concepts and systems. One particular part of this show which stands out for me is a candid conversation with @alexanderwolfegram about mental health followed by another very candid conversation with @kate_c_adams_ @alexis_soul_gray @kellyjessiman @mindylee.me and @sabinecaspariearts about navigating parenthood and art. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of the above mentioned individuals and to @amici__art @george_brookebenington @mingomingostudio @natashamacvoy @katemontgomerypainter @studio.edie @hicks_nicola @maliheh_zafarnezhad @a.n.j.smith @hettiejudah and @keithburkeprivatechef . Bring on the next iteration of this show!

“The fattest and most scrumptious of all flowers, a rare fusion of fluff and majesty…”, and in the most beautiful vase by @totoceramiclondon , with a side of @lydiagoldblatt @slominski_projects and @adansophiecalle .

Works from @hicks_nicola solo show ‘Love’ @messumslondon , on until 23 May. While it would be easy to reduce this exhibition including paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures of animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, and crustaceans - to highly-skilled indulgences of a zoophilist or animal lover, there is so much more. In their simplest form, the works are responses to hate, to war, to cruelty and violence. They are potent reminders of our wider ecology and connections to one another and the natural world, of our capacity to co-exist and love. Just as Hicks defied the dominance of abstract art in the 1980s, in 2026, she continues to forge a path centred on figuration and the natural world, posing questions about human and animal nature. I feel an insistence on Hicks’ part, within a male-dominated art world. When we think of historical, anatomical animal studies to contemporary domestic and wildlife portraiture, we tend to think of Da Vinci, Stubbs, Landseer, Audubon, Marc, Rousseau, Wallinger, Walton Ford, and Hirst. The only other woman artist who instantly comes to mind is Rosa Bonheur. I had the great privilege of writing an essay (link in bio) for the ‘Declarative Language’ show co-curated by Alexis Soul-Gray and @kellyjessiman , in which the following text about Hicks is included. “Nicola Hicks MBE, who is dyslexic, emphasises the role of arts for those who feel displaced or alienated. ‘The arts have always been the home for people who don’t quite fit. There is a beautiful correlation between the energy expended ‘trying’ to fit and the blossoming of an artistic purpose when that energy is diverted into creativity.’…A mother of two – both of whom she gave birth to in her studio – Hicks acknowledges that having children enhanced her practice...the reality is realising what the echelon of love, care, and obstinate energy does to your heart and hands is liberating. It is not retooling; it is tooling 2.0.” #nicolahicks #fineart #contemporaryart #animalart #animalsculpture

@kellyjessiman is a gem of a human being and artist-mother. Such a beautiful, sincere soul. So grateful to have had the chance to hear her speak today with @alexis_soul_gray and @hettiejudah and @artworkingparents , on a panel at @amici__art about the show Soul Gray and Jessiman co-curated - ‘Declarative Language’ - and the realities of sustaining an artistic practice alongside caregiving. In my essay which accompanies the show (link in bio), I include the following text about Jessiman. “Amidst stoneware and a kiln, Jessiman considers her sculpture practice a sanctuary from the pandemonium. Tactile testimonies of tenacity, the artist’s hand-constructed diary-vessels mimic her days, in embracing the imperfect. If one combined Grayson Perry’s conventional vessels with unconventional adornments, Matisse’s simple, fluid lines, Rose Wylie’s childlike sense, and Jessiman’s own and borrowed explicit, often directive texts, one would happen upon her mud-to-masterpieces. The artist does not shy away from sharing her experiences as the mother of neurodivergent children, including the dysregulation, occupational therapy, interactions with social services, and sleep deprivation…” “Dyslexic herself, Jessiman is most proficient in the linguistics of creativity. She has dabbled in sewing, visual merchandising, and interior design, and although she made items of clay for her art GCSE, she did not touch it again until she was pregnant with her first child. It was not until lockdown when she became properly reacquainted, needing something just for herself. Her bones and muscles perhaps retained the restorative benefits. Physical contact is the first form of communication we learn as infants, and creating with clay can be a physical-mental-sensual way of transforming frustration, grief, memories, and conscious and unconscious beliefs and desires. It is also her way of harmonising motherhood and making with semi-fettered agency.” #kellyjessiman #fineart #fineartsculpture #clay

The genius that is Banksy. Blind patriotism? Erosion of critical thinking and culture of compliance? Democratic and social harm? Personality cults hindering rational governance? The disregard of unethical behaviour in favour of wealth, status and power? “Ozymandias” By Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. @banksy #banksy

@kuca_magda pieces included in the ‘Between Feeling and Unfeeling: Art and Anaesthesia’ exhibition, on at @museumofanaesthesia until April 2027. The show combines contemporary and historical works - prints, paintings, illustration, and sound - and delves into the relationship between anaesthesia, art and the experience, understanding, communication, and management of pain, along with consciousness, care, and the body. This collaboration between Kuca and the museum - on the site of @associationofanaesthetists - serves as a prelude to her upcoming solo presentation from 5 May to 18 June at @oldoperatingtheatre , which explores the idea of physical and metaphorical absence of feeling through the shared histories of ether as a substance used in early anaesthesia and as a key component of the wet collodion photographic process. Her series ‘Blood of my Blood’ reflects the parallel histories of care, science, and image-making. Wet collodion is a technique used predominantly in the 1850s and 1860s, relying on silver, glass, and ether-based collodion to capture photographs. She portrays museum staff, anaesthetists, and the Association of Anaesthetists’ board and trustee members on glass plates, reinterpreting the state of going under anaesthesia. As part of the programming, Kuca will lead an electrophotography workshop on 30 April from 6pm at the Museum of Anaesthesia. The link is in her bio. #magdakuca #fineartphotography #wetcollodion #victorianphotography #anaesthesia

Works from group show ‘Contours’, on @lyndsey_ingram until 29 May, a group exhibition bringing together a wide variety of artists - Matisse, Picasso, Richter, Warhol, Degas, Hockney, Dubuffet, Baselitz, Lisa Brice, Tracey Emin, Freud, Gauguin, Lee Miller, Henry Moore, and 18 others - to explore how artists have depicted line and form and experimented with pictorial space via the figure. The paintings, etchings, lithographs, drawings, engravings, photographs, screenprints, and linocuts of figures - perhaps to be expected, the majority of which are female - detail manipulation of size and colour, background and foreground, overlap and convergence, and atmospheric perspectives, all contributing to how we sense outlines, profiles, silhouettes, and boundaries. Enjoyed examining contour in an art context rather than the seemingly inescapable makeup context. No offense to Kim Kardashiqn, Victoria Beckham, or Charlotte Tilbury, but I’d much rather watch a YouTube tutorial by Georgie Hopton, Kathryn Maple, and Isla Jones on artists’ contouring techniques.