Sensory Art Bubble

As an artist, I was once very constrained and I would rarely explore, truly explore within my own practice. I feel this was a byproduct of studying art and constantly feeling like I needed to meet the ‘criteria’. My focus would be the final piece which would be graded or assessed, rather than the journey of getting to it. Over the years, since graduating, my art practice became somewhat random. Once free from the vague mysteries of trying to conform to a grading matrix, I would bounce between different media and loved to learn new approaches. I never knew how to control where my interests went or how to produce something with a consistent ‘style’. I thought creating a ‘style’ was mandatory for all artists, but didn’t understand how anyone did it or how anyone could stick with the same media without getting bored. It’s a wonder I didn’t realise I was neurodiverse sooner! Enter my MA in Arts Practice (Arts, Health and Wellbeing) where the focus wasn’t a specific finished piece of art, bu...

While out on walks in the local area, I couldn’t help but notice areas of tactile intrigue. As someone who loves exploring fabrics and the potential of textile media, I have been wondering for some time if I could incorporate these textures into my work. The answer came in the form of a resounding yes, when I remembered previously experimenting with pastel dye sticks, that are suitable for textiles. While waiting for the rain to ease off, I donned my coat, armed myself with some calico cotton, pastel dye sticks and went gallivanting to see what patterns would emerge on my fabric. Getting a rubbing using pastel dye sticks on fabric . This adventure reminded me of my sensory walk from last month, except this time it was a focus on one sensory system: the tactile sense! An interesting factor that I learned from Joanna Grace at the Sensory Lexiconary 2026, is that we always think of tactile senses as being just our hands. But in fact, the tactile senses are the entirety of our skin. Imagin...

Last week I took some time off. I didn’t have any solid plans, what I love to do with free time is just bounce around in my bubble, following whatever random tangent my brain decides. Apparently last week it was Pokemon! I’ve been on a mission to complete the card sets from when I was a child and it’s a fun mix of nostalgia and newness, to be coming across cards I rarely or never saw when I was a child. Allow me to share some of my favourite cards! I commented previously that this blog has become me slowly introducing myself, then it’s only fitting that Pokemon appears at some point. (See previous blog posts to learn about my curiosity for the sensory systems, as well as my arts and music practice!) Having grown up with Pokemon it’s an interest that has never really left me and life is too short, to not embrace things that fill you with joy! Pokemon is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year and it’s all kinds of incredible that it spans across so many generations. As a childcare ...