Creative Podcast, Art shows and ADHD

Hi there,

We’re well and truly into 2026! And as usual I have a bunch of things going on at once. Right now I’m sitting at the Make/Space exhibition centre at Coffs Central! I’m volunteering for the day and watching over the ‘Balance the Scales’ Exhibition. It’s leading up to mothers day and the theme is - Experiences of Gender imbalances in your environment, society, homes etc. As you can imagine there are some very emotive art works here. A few artists have touched on violence against women and how much more prevalent it is than against men. There are a lot of pieces depicting the female form and some lovely abstract and landscapes too.

I’ve met some fantastic artists sitting here today and a lovely lady bought a painting! It was very exciting. I’m glad I’ve experienced sitting in an exhibition for a day and can see myself doing it again if needed. Very heart warming was the fact that a few friends and family popped in to see me and show support.

Now what else has been going on. I’ve registered for the Incognito Art Show in Sydney! Artists submit works in A5 and the exhibition keeps artist names completely incognito until the art is sold. All proceeds go to supporting artists with disabilities. I’ve completed two watercolours of Coffs Jetty at sunrise. One to go! Hopefully they sell.

Creative Podcast! We’re starting a podcast. I’m very excited about this. I’ve been thinking about for a while and Dylan (writer) and Lachlan (film maker) are keen. We will be recording episode 1 in the next month and I’ll be advertising it around once uploaded! I’m sure it will take some time for us to find our feet, but I’m excited just to give it a go.

So keep an eye out for ‘The Side Quest Creative Podcast’ - friendly conversations about being creative while working non-creative jobs, and managing the many pressures of the modern day.

Finally on a personal note, my exhaustion and mental state have been respectively very high and very low lately. A reliable source suggested I may be neuro-divergent and I’m close to booking in an apt with a psych to get an assessment. In the mean time I’ve been deep diving into this possibility and the more I learn about it the more likely it seems. Hoping for answers soon. It sounds like many artist are in similar boats - many neuro-divergent people being very creative.

Hoping for some guidance on how to build a life I look forward to waking up to, compared to one I want to escape. Will keep you all posted.

Thanks for reading,

-b.