I’m officially Outside In!

It’s always a treat to offer up some good news amongst the doom and gloom that seems to be following us all around at the moment. It’s one of the reasons I never feel able to rest – I want to achieve more than being physically unwell, mentally taxed, negatively effected by the news, and emotionally incarcerated. I crave more, but it’s not easy to achieve.

As many of you already know I spend time writing articles and coming up with creative ways I can help others – my mental health column (and artwork) for the Cruse South East monthly newsletter is a good example of this. Sometimes you have to force goodness into your life, and doing these things gives me some productivity and belief back.

A tasty bi-product of all this creative work is the recommendations I receive which, now and then produce a ‘project pie’ that I HAVE to dip my finger in.

Enter Outside In. To give you a snapshot of their work, here is a quote from their website;

Outside In is a catalyst for change. Founded in 2006, it is now an established national charity that aims to provide a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation.

http://www.outsidein.org.uk, accessed August 2022

I’ve always focussed my creative energy on writing because it’s something I relish, but illustrating gives me a different level of peace. It’s stress free and consuming. In anxious periods it’s something I try to distract myself with, and is the most successful tool I’ve found and the main reason for starting my Creative Coping Strategies campaign.

So when my artwork started receiving attention on top of my writing, I was a bit lost. Chuffed, but still perplexed. It was never my intention, but it was a welcome effect. Outside In was mentioned to me by a huge mental illness charity. They thought I might be a potential exhibitor and possibly a volunteer. I had a look at their website for 3 looooooong months before I had the courage to make contact though. It was nice to get the suggestion, but having the balls to actually showcase my work, to call myself an ‘artist’, to be an exhibitor…I didn’t feel comfortable with those labels at all. In fact, I still don’t.

I toured the website and looked at the amazing work of others several times over. If you want to see something beautiful on the site then I can save you a bit of searching with these reccommendations. Here’s a few that I adored…

The Lily – by Danielle Hammond

Our Ocean – Purple Jellyfish – By Jaynes Art and Design

The sound of music – By Michelle Roberts

Dexter the Dopey Dude – By Terrence Leggat

This is a drop in the ocean. Hundreds of talented artists that, like me, might otherwise have been ignored or missed out, are exhibiting thousands of pieces on this site. It’s incredible.

The team at the charity were really welcoming and helpful and guided me through what to do next.

Over a couple of weeks I gradually collated my illustrations (the ones I was happy to show) and uploaded them to my own gallery. A week or so later it was published and you can now visit the Steph Clark Outside In Gallery (if you want to!).

So technically this makes me an artist, but it’s a label I haven’t got the hang of without the precursor of ‘amateur’ added.

“Hi, I’m Steph. I’m an amateur artist and writer.”

You get the idea.

Anyway, I’m incredibly proud to be sitting amongst so much UK based talent, and it’s one of the few positive effects of my mental illness, agoraphobic isolation and mobility problems. It feels odd to say that, but it’s true.

So, as an addition to my usual creative exploits, I’ll also be adding new artwork to my online exhibition, and I’ll keep everyone updated on here. If you are interested in creating your own gallery with Outside In (and you fit the artist profile of facing a barrier) then you can see more about becoming an exhibitor on the Outside In Join page. It’s completely free and very simple to register and upload your art digitally, but there is help available if you need it.

I hope you like the exhibitions on there!

The Picture

Once again I’m reusing one of my instagram #dtiys entries for this post, and it was a no-brainer which one I should use.

This bunny looking in a mirror could almost be standing at an easel – something I’d love to do one day.

If you’d like to have a look at the original this image was based on, or any of my other #DrawThisInYourStyle entries, then have a look at my Instagram DTIYS page.

Thanks for reading! 💜