I have been creating art since I was old enough to make marks on a piece of paper. Painting and drawing got me through a very difficult childhood, where I survived childhood sexual abuse, and adolescence, already living with depression and anxiety and experiencing periods of self harm. When I was 19 I was raped, after which I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as the depression and anxiety that I already lived with. This period of poor mental health came alongside an inability to do the one thing that had kept me sane, my art, and for several years I did nothing creative. I spent a year in a residential psychiatric unit, after being diagnosed with severe Borderline Personality Disorder, where I took part in Art Therapy on a weekly basis. This re-awakened in me the desire to make art again and during my stay in the unit I began to express myself creatively once again. Upon leaving the unit and trying to live in the community again, I found that making art became more difficult, the emotional connection I felt to the work that I tried to engange in brought up a whole host of painful feelings and distressing flashbacks and images to my childhood and the rape that I had experienced. Ater extensive psychotherapy and input from services for my mental health, I finally began making strides in my healing work, only to be struck down with a debilitating physical condition which leaves me in permanent pain and suffering almost daily with chronic exhaustion. A lot of the pain and fatigue, I believe, is a manifestation of the powerful feelings and emotions that I have had building up inside me over the many years of pain and reliving the trauma that I experienced both as a child and an adult. Since September 2011, I have allowed myself the joy of creating once again, and though this has brought up a lot of feelings connected to trauma, it has also been an outlet for many of those feelings. I truly believe that without the ability to express myself creatively, I would not have made such tangible steps forward in my healing journey. Once again the drive and excitement at creating is pushing me forwards and I am once again learning to use this gift as a way of controlling the darker. more distressing thoughts and feelings that are associated with my mental health issues and the fallout from trauma. I love to paint, using acrylics and sometimes oils, and also to draw using a variety of media, I enjoy photography too and crafting using many different techniques. I would say my painting and drawing style is flowing and dream-like, I love to use colour and light and dark to express mood, I find that I can fill hours with painting which can help me through days when I am struggling more than usual. I also enoy writing poetry and writing about my own experiences and observations. I enjoy painting and drawing faces and the female form as well as more abstract designs. My wonderful partner and my lovely little dog inspire me to keep going with my work and keep going with life. I believe that art is my way through the pain and into a life of freedom.