Cosmic Queen Drawing

I am a disabled visual artist based in Cape Town, South Africa, working in richly detailed, symbolically layered surrealism. My practice emerged and deepened during the Covid-19 pandemic—a time of internal retreat and creative resilience. I developed a unique process that blends digital collage, hand-printing, and meticulous hand-drawing on heavy archival paper. Each piece undergoes a 10–12 step process, incorporating inks, charcoal, and fine liner to create textured, immersive works that invite slow looking and deep feeling. The themes in my work are varied and deeply personal, shaped by a life lived intensely. They explore what it means to be an atypical person in a neurotypical world, the horrors humans are capable of, lost loves, and a conflicted relationship with systems like patriarchy and organized religion. My art also gives voice to deep anger around economic, cultural, and gender injustices, while holding space for dreamscapes, wish-fulfilment, and the imagination of a perpetually curious child. From moments of sublime joy to the echoes of trauma, my lived experience is woven through every piece—where words have failed, the work has spoken. Since childhood, I’ve been drawn to the edges of understanding—to places just beyond reason and familiarity. Through art, I investigate emotional responses, inherited beliefs, and social constructs. I try to better understand both myself and others through this lens, especially the misunderstood or hidden parts of the psyche and spirit. My fascination with the human experience is a constant undercurrent, shaped by a neurodivergent perspective that colours how I see the world. I draw inspiration from literature, Jungian theory, vintage medical and biological illustrations, museum and library archives, old printers, etchers, and engravers—along with the influence of classical surrealism, which I first explored during my high school art studies. Heavily influenced by Jung, I aim to express both personal and archetypal narratives using surreal compositions that evoke a full range of emotion—grief, humour, longing, curiosity, joy, sorrow, and many unnamed feelings in between. A significant part of my creative lens is shaped by lived experience: my late-diagnosed autism, complex PTSD, the long-lasting effects of Long Covid, and the profound life shift of losing mobility.