While my background is in poetry, I experience language as too slow to capture the raw guts of my experience. Digital collaging offers a cathartic immediacy, allowing me to morph existing imagery into something unrecognizable yet potent. It is a stream-of-consciousness process that preserves the pressure-cooker heat of an emotion before it cools.

I find inspiration within inner experiences: mental states, dreams, and the hauntings of past encounters. Through the ritual of warping and distorting imagery, I navigate heartache, longing, and the tension of under-stimulation. My work is often a response to sound or my own poetry; a spark dredges up latent emotion, leaving me possessed by the need to translate that experience into visceral visuals for others to encounter.

As an artist navigating neurodivergence, financial stability is my ultimate creative tool. I would use this prize money to provide a cushion for a life-changing move that would secure the grounding I need to dedicate my energy to my work, giving me the freedom to realize my artistic visions on a larger, more sophisticated scale.