By Lily

I’m Lily – a textile artist (amongst other things) who’s brain is a bit of a tangle – neurodivergence and a history of poorly mental health – which I wasn’t aware wasn’t everyone’s experience until I was diagnosed. My brain can become a jumbled mess of information bubbles and swirls that became lost in translation between my thoughts and the formation of speech (out loud or written) – it can be crushing and isolating. Sometimes the words that fall out of my mouth bear little resemblance to what I want to get across.

I think that’s part of why I gravitated towards a textile practice. With meticulous structure, threads weft together and become predictable, cohesive; a wider fabric. They can be singled out and followed, stitch by stitch. Without consideration thread will degrade into a knotty mess. It’s a way of being creative that allows for those lapses in focus, or mis-translation. It forgives you being distracted and lets you continue anyway. You can make sense of it, and I can make sense with it.