What type of person are you?
It’s something we have all thought about at many points in life I’m sure. I’ve always had a hard time coming up with an answer that seemed appropriate. It’s hard to boil down who I am into a finite category.
Ultimately, I just feel like myself, whatever that means. When it comes to art, I make what feels right. I use colors that make me happy. I sometimes draw with my eyes closed and just let myself feel my way through it. Honestly, that is kind of how I live my life, just feeling my way through it. So my best answer is, I am the Holly type of person. If you know me, you’ll know what that means 😉
Life can be hard sometimes, so I just want to bring a little whimsy into it.
My work is an escape from the tiny humans I made because my brain decided to wage war against me.
Postpartum depression is a beast. I fought my way through it with my first daughter, Grace in 2017. I started drawing my experiences with being a new mom that had never been around a baby before. It was the only way I could cope with the trauma, the anxiety, the lack of connection to her. It took 2 years to feel like myself again.
I expected PPD the second time around with my daughter Lucy but didn’t expect it to be worse. So I went back to drawing to escape the noise, the disappointment in myself, the deep sorrow of not feeling a connection to this human I was so recently physically connected to.
Drawing gave me a healthy outlet. I started taking on commissions drawing other peoples families. It gave me something to be proud of. It gives me peace and quiet in my mind for just long enough to take the edge off so I can keep moving forward.
I am almost 1 year postpartum with Lucy and still deal with it, although it seems to be a little less these days which gives me hope that the sun will come back in my life soon.
Part of me thinks what I do is just simple, silly doodles. But they have brought me joy when I was otherwise being drowned by darkness. So I want to share them and hope they can be something you enjoy as well.