Taking a New Creative Pathway

At the time, the art she created simply reflected the dark space she was in, and while it was, in a sense, of form of therapy in itself, it did not stop her spiralling even further downwards. It wasn’t until she took a break and spent some time with friends in New Zealand that things really started to turn around, in both her art and her life. “Having gone through the year of 2015, which was the year from hell, and losing people and all of that, I suppose my art at that stage was quite, I call it dark and vortexy because that’s how I felt, I felt dark and vortexy,” she said.

“I had a really cathartic experience probably about 12 months ago when I’d done ve months of TAFE and was still feeling probably a bit nervous there and a bit unsure of what I was doing. “Everything sort of crashed around me and I had a nervous breakdown and I went over to visit my friends in New Zealand for a while.

“I came back and I really did just have this epiphany. I sat outside and I talked to the sky and forgave everyone and forgave everything and forgave life and felt like this lightness came over me. “And my work changed, my worked changed so considerably. If you look at the body of work I put up (for my diploma), it’s all about growth, rebirth and life and transformation. It’s actually called Suiga, which is the Samoan word for change. “I just have had the best time creating these works that to me represent my journey out of that dark abyss.