Kindness: A Story in Paper and Glue
A story of kindness
This is more than a piece of art. It’s where my style took shape, my message deepened, and my path became clearer.
This artwork is called Kindness. It has become my signature piece, for a number of reasons. It carries the heart of Cherish & Bloom as a business, reflects my personal growth, and captures the essence of my vision and passions in life.
Developing my style
This piece of art is so meaningful to me because it's the first collage artwork that I created in this style. I had sketches of artworks that I was planning on painting, and I was in the process of trying to find what my art style would be. I had countless screenshots on my phone of art that inspired me, and I had started experimenting with developing my sketches.
I was also in the very early stages of starting my business. At that point, my focus was on setting myself up as a coach – for individuals and groups – supporting mothers and sharing the life-changing teaching I had received from the Mama Rising training I completed with Amy Taylor-Kabbaz (matrescence educator and activist). I intended to incorporate my artwork into my workshops and communication, but it wasn’t the focus of the business.
Towards the end of 2023, I took part in an online collage workshop with Sandra Gale, a collage artist in Adelaide. Her art is beautiful and vibrant, with messages of empowerment and celebration of women. I not only love her art style, but also her heart which shines through her artwork. During this workshop with Sandra, I created Kindness.
After tweaking a few things and sitting with this artwork, I knew I had found it. I had found my style. I had found the way that I wanted to move forward in communicating my stories, my creativity, my heart.
Developing my business
As I created more collage art, the focus for my business shifted and became clearer. Everything I am doing is influenced by my passion to support mothers, and shaped by my matrescence/coaching training, but the focus is now on the art.
I have created a business that uses art to connect with mothers – directly, and in collaboration with coaches and health professionals. I want to use art to share my stories of motherhood, of neurodivergence, of growth and healing, in ways words often can’t.
Kindness: An image of Cherish & Bloom
Kindness is a reflection of what it means to cherish your heart, to notice it – notice what it needs, what it's feeling – and to tend to it compassionately in the ways that you need. It's about pausing, even in the midst of the challenges of motherhood and the chaos of living in this world. Taking moments to simply be with yourself.
It is also about blooming – looking outwards and catching glimpses of wonder in the everyday. Finding delight in the things around you – little sparkles throughout your day that make you smile. Perhaps no one else sees them, but you see them, and they do something to light up your heart, your brain, your face.
This artwork is a reflection of the colour and joy and vibrant things in this world … and also things that are scattered. As someone with ADHD, there are a lot of things that are scattered in my inner and outer world - but that's all part of the bigger picture of my life.
I use this artwork to show what Cherish & Bloom is about. It’s about finding a soft space to rest. A place to be held, to be seen. A place of nurture and growth.
I find it beautiful how art can do that.
If you’re a mother navigating chaos, a creative soul trying to find your way, or someone simply in need of softness – I hope you find a piece of yourself here too.
Let’s Stay Connected
If this post resonated with you, I'd love to stay connected. You can find me over on Instagram and Facebook , where I share more about motherhood, art and neurodivergence.
If you'd like to hear more of my story, including reflections on ADHD and matrescence, I was interviewed on Amy Taylor-Kabbaz's podcast, The Happy Mama Movement, a few years ago. You can listen to that episode here
You can find Sandra Gale's gorgeous artwork here on Instagram.