If you can afford to make a donation, we are a ND and Disabled led arts project and any donation (from £3.00) supports us to be able to keep reduced costs on our workshops and cover our costs for our platform. Thank you.
In workshops Neurodivergent women artists attend to their art practice and are attuned to the collective unconscious. The title of this exhibition comes from the Making Space for Art workshop. We invite other Neurodivergent artists to exhibit with us through the Call Out process.
Please note, not all artwork will have titles, they are either made in workshops or many Neurodivergents will often not name their artwork. If you spot an artwork you like please email us the name of the artist and describe the art-piece if you’re interested in purchasing it or would like to know more about the artist.
Many of our ND artists might have access needs and so it is important you contact us instead of reaching out directly to them. We thank you for your understanding.
This is best viewed on a laptop.
“When we are open
this can be dangerous
because
Neurodivergent artists so often
don’t have a filter.”
Becky Atherton - Ascend
“Open
we expand
our wings
ready for flight
we soar
over lands and seas
we are filled with oceans
we carry the world in our eyes. ”
Emma Reavey
“We are impulsive
And speak from the heart
We hold wisdom
In the palm of our hand.”
Judith Rowlands
“And often people, passer bys don’t know
what to do with this wisdom
this abundance of seeing
feeling thinking seeking
the all-seeing”
Sarah Gray
“they call us intense, they run off scared
it’s hard to see the fear in their eyes
hear the anger off their lips
and know what to say or do - ”
“so perhaps we mask
or make up
hide
behind veils
stories
store ourselves in glass boxes
unsure what to reveal
unsure what to say, we lose passion sometimes
for our art-creating feels hard...”
Philippa Bandurek Bradbury - My Stimmy Feet with tan lines (Acrylic paint on 240gsm canvas textured sheet, approx 27x36cm.
“Because to be open is to be
a Magical Women artist
one who glimmers
who is the seeker of light
who is filled always with it
but requires more
even when it is becoming too
difficult to contain it.”
Anna Dyson
“Yet, if we pay attention to the meaning
in the Neurodivergent’s art
and heart
you’ll truly look into the abyss
the void
and hear it speaking back
through song
light
colour”
Becky Atherton - Escape
“And our eyes will open again,
our lashes
curling and the
shimmering
light
light on skin
our second skin;
on scales
on feathers
an alien being
a different tongue
we open ourselves
up to be
just
who we are:”
“through colour
splashes
and stims
and movement
flight
sight
the moon
the light
the sky at night.”
Wendy Young
“For we might
be at the seashore
gathering stardust
in our pockets
looking at the gaping hole
of caves
and being;
in the act of
breathing
in sea salt air
We might be, daring to exist ”
Judith Rowlands
“and listening and longing
and feeling out for our home
our shell
reciting all of our stories
from our youth.”
Philippa Bandurek Bradbury - Sheldon in Red (Fineliner pen on approx 15x15cm white paper)
Frances Ann Norton - Sleeping Girl Angels over Asgaardstrand
“Awakening up to our childhood
dreams
no longer fastened to a life
that scars us
but one that brightens all the corners of our
rooms ”
Elinor Rowlands - Opening from the core
“We feel the magic
We bask in it
Golden rays of sunshine
starlight
warming to our song again
we create, we paint, we make
It flows free from us like shooting stars,
rain, waterfalls, gushing,
pouring out of ourselves”
Philippa Bandurek Bradbury - Philippa Aged 11 Self-portrait (Acrylics on canvas board, approx 20x25cm)
“A grand revealing
A gentle unfurling
An opening”
Anna Dyson - My Opening
Elinor Rowlands - All the words all the worlds passing me by
“And once cracked
you’ll see
the abundance within
here, within us.”
Emma Reavey
Wendy Young - My Opening
Stacey Hemes
Nicola Willis
Nicola Willis
“It is shimmering out
an artistic expression
A calling for more light.”
In our workshops
we discovered to be open is not as scary
as the world's systems and structures
make us feel being open is to be.
Being open means being
self-aware
and being powerful
there is a power in being together
together with senses
together with art materials
and creations and creating
and attending to
being open with curiosity
and being open to feel
and the heightened feelings we do feel
can sometimes feel like punishment
like a "why me?"
as it stops us from accessing
spaces
systems
structures
and sometimes even life..
but who is to say that that life is the light
we seek?
the light that we keep,
and feel and breathe in daily
and when in communion
making, creating, glowing brighter,
this seeking need not .... - (breathe)
our seeking
need not stop there.
For, the seeking is in the listening and tuning in
to
the power of our openness.
Tuning into this higher power
we feel together in workshops.
Thank you, for sharing it with us.
Curated by Elinor Rowlands for Magical Women
Words by Elinor Rowlands
Art by
Becky Atherton
Emma Reavey
Judith Rowlands
Sarah Bailey
Philippa Bandurek Bradbury
Frances Ann Norton
Stacey Hemes
Nicola Willis
Anna Dyson
Wendy Young
Elinor Rowlands
Thank you for attending our online Exhibition, My Opening, 2020
Our ally Richard Downes writes a poem in response to My Opening for World Disability Day
Magic; My Opening
It was a terrible thing not to be able to speak. A terrible thing to have my heArt go unheard. I found myself in a world that showed it didn’t want me. Turned away I turned away. I closed down to look at last for other openings. Many openings led to close downs. Close downs led to openings. The best to hope for to stay open a little longer each time.
My Opening
My opening, my first sentence
The words came out furious
Jumbled, forceful, erratic
Spoken to no sympathy
Except in forms not wanted
From bullies and oppressors
My opening, my first sentence
Began my rightful struggle
To articulate my love
My love dispersed unwanted
Cast like seed to rocky ground
I am become the hunch back
My opening, my first sentence
A fight to be heard without
Doubtful silence lurks within
Hatred will not hear my love
My light turns now to darkness
My opening, my first close down
3rd December 2020
The International Day of Disabled People