It was towards the end of 2013 that creativity became a must for me. It was a way to help sustain my mental health during stressful times in my life. It also helped me to regain focus and get back on track when life knocked me. At the time there was very little spoken about mental health and sometimes I felt that I was in a small minority of people suffering.

And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and suddenly it felt like conversations around mental health were happening everywhere.

My Covid Nests workshops commissioned by Urban Wilderness as part of their Happenings Festival of Public Art was an opportunity for me to share how creativity can help mental health and to recognise the emotions that people have been going through during the pandemic.

I ran a series of pop-up workshops at community events across the city and invited participants to use a range of materials to make nests while they reflected on their emotions during the pandemic. Inspired by these small pieces I created a large scale nest using willow and invited the public to write messages on fabric and attach them to co-create a ‘covid nest’ representing community concerns during the pandemic and beyond.

This project enabled me to deliver participatory workshops, raise awareness of mental health, and develop my ideas in new directions.

A huge thank you to Urban Wilderness for giving me the opportunity to try out new ideas and all of the support they have given me.