Home is Where the Heart is - 'A tool of disassociation soon turns to play'

 Home is Where the Heart is 

Hand Drawn Digitised, 2025.

Poems Nadeen Brown, 2025.

We all have homes, not within the four walls we reside in, the places we've called home with blurred lines of the physical and imaginary. 

We have imaginary homes of safety, we have homes filled with darkness that don't ever see the light of day; hidden deep within ourselves. We have memories of beautiful stunning houses we've seen that have left a mark in our memories and we have creatures within our minds that carry houses upon their backs. We also have houses of horrors and peeping toms making it known that "you aren't safe within the world,"

For people with Cptsd I find were quite good at compartmentalising and we turn into creative creatures and story tellers. At times we cannot stand the hard truths of our realities, and we can at times turn it into creativity. We need to dispel that charge that greets us within our daily lives, we cannot run away from it nor stuff it down and silence it. It begs to be heard and is loud, so we turn it into art.

 A tool of disassociation soon turns into play. 

This isn't a flaw is a beautiful survival strategy. A tool we can utilise in silence within our minds imagining other worlds. Or we can bring it to the surface and draw it, create it, sculpt it. 

The unmovable, that's within us. To look at our worlds in chaos and turn it into whimsical meaning. The monster that leers, the scuttle bug or the tombs of imaginary catacombs. 

We may not be able to pour our trauma out into words, so we create. To leave that message embedded within the art, hidden yet so glaringly there. Our words are then spoken via our art practises and the heaviness is lifted ever so slightly. A change in energy and frequency what hurt an hour ago now doesn't because its laid bare on paper, An act of self-preservation and self-care. 

Growing up the houses I resided in were not safe spaces, I felt the pull of hypervigilance, key holes were covered, locks on doors. Stepping as silently as I could down the hallway to get to the toilet and retreating as quickly as I could back to my room. In the house I grew up in I had to make myself small, I wasn't able to talk much nor was I able to make strong connections. Very young on as a child I found art, a tool where I didn't have to make myself small, a place where I could explore themes and concepts and a bounty of friends. It was a tool of survival that I've carried on throughout my life. 

Home is where the heart is, is a collection of drawings of various houses. It's symbolic of the fleeting feelings of safety that soon turn to dread and a reminder of all the houses that reside within all of us. It aims to empower those living with trauma backgrounds to look within to feel feelings of safety and to look at the harder parts of ourselves, our deep emotions and a remembering that we can find insight if we don't shy away. Art as a tool for therapeutic models is now a theme within recovery for mental and physical conditions, however some of us have been using it for many decades.

The Insect Inn

House upon her back she carefully roams, home secured on delicate wings. Little ladybug sing me your dreams. Softly and slowly like a beautiful autumn breeze. 

The Insect Inn, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition,2025.

Silent Tombs 

Chronic illness feels as though I am almost entirely a catacomb. Stuck inside a haunted maze possessed by sorrow. I still physically exist, yet I fear I am a vestige of the former self. A subterranean gallery of a trapped soul, cloaked by darkness, a candle leads the way, a dim flicker of a flame. 

Silent Tombs, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition,2025.

Paper Thin Walls 

A house of books weaves many tales to tell. Built with delicate, paper thin walls a homage to the words written by the forgotten and faceless souls.

Paper Thin Walls, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition,2025.

The Great Train Escape

Along iron tracks a house stands still, for just a fleeting moment peace is found. Thoughts of magic and wonder ignite as the trains wheels spark from beneath, my delight. 

The Great Train Escape, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition,2025.

Sanctuary of Silence

Peer inside careful the floorboards may squeak beneath your dirty grass covered feet. 

Sanctuary of Silence, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition, 2025.

Looky Loo

Windows shut and curtains drawn, keyholes covered, locks on doors. But the thing that leers comes from inside, welcomed and greeted; a familiar sin and for that I truly despise. 

Looky Loo, Hand drawn Digitised, Open Edition, 2025.