Splodge Five: From Paint to Poetry: A Creative Personal Exploration

Why am I writing this?

The Drop the Mask workshop invitation arrived at an interesting time for me. I'd just started art therapy the week before, beginning to explore how creative expression might connect with internal processes. As someone comfortable with public speaking and performance, I wasn't daunted by the prospect of sharing my work. What drew me in was the chance to work with mediums I hadn't touched in years – paints, photography and poetry – while connecting with others navigating similar neurodivergent experiences.

Rediscovering Old Tools

Workshop Foundations

The first workshop demonstrated poetry, visual art, and photography as different approaches to expressing neurodivergent experiences. For me, the real value lay in returning to creative practices I'd set aside years ago. The brainstorming process felt natural and fun – a great little hyper-fixation for me to fall into – and gave me space to explore ideas specifically around my neurodivergence.

I settled on a few pieces that felt authentic after working through various concepts. Writing poetry again after years away felt like picking up a familiar tool. Creating and recording that first piece reminded me why I'd enjoyed performance spoken word poetry in the past, but with even more substance behind it.

Visual Expression

The art component brought back the tactile pleasure of working with paints. I created two contrasting pieces that captured different aspects of my experience clearly.

The first included two opposing aspects of my neurodivergent experience, taping two pieces back-to-back. On the first side, I used an explosion of pastels and paints to represent my D&D group friendships—relationships built on genuine understanding of neurodivergent experiences. The colours felt right for depicting that unique kind of connection.

The second side took a different approach: calm purple tones with soft fabric forming a 3D bed. This represented the recharge time I need: a necessary restoration.

The third piece proved most significant: a mountain created by stamping bread and potatoes across the page. The stamping technique reminded me of childhood art projects, which felt appropriate since it depicted my ARFID (Avoidant, Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) struggles –the same issues I'd experienced as a child before having language to explain them and the isolation and shame I was subjected to. Using food as the medium made sense; it transformed the source of difficulty into something communicative.

Public Platforms

First Exhibition

I helped with the setup at the initial exhibition, which gave me the chance to see everyone's work come together in one space. Observing the full collection was fascinating. Each piece reflected different aspects, experiences, and emotions around neurodivergent life. Some pieces radiated joy and connection, others clearly emerged from pain and struggle, but all of them carried authentic weight. There was something beautiful about seeing that spectrum of experience displayed together.

I created three new poems and performed my original one from the workshop ‘A Long Day’. The performance itself energized me, but the Q&A session afterward proved even more valuable. It created space to discuss ARFID openly and educate people about something that had shaped my experiences significantly.

What This Process Revealed

This project returned poetry to my life after a long absence. Once it helped me express a time of deep personal pain, but this process reminded me how it could help me vocalise comfort and complexity just as effectively.

The timing with art therapy created a positive productive cycle. The workshop and seeing other people’s artistic creations gave me ideas on where to start, and continued therapy has given me reflections on how best to use these creative outputs to help me in the long run.

Art isn't just documenting my experience anymore; it's actively shaping how I understand and navigate it.

Thanks for reading. I'm curious about others' experiences with different methods of creative expression. What mediums have you found most effective for processing or sharing significant experiences?

Written by Iona Cameron (they/them)