Something Hopeful

Meet the Artists

Tasha - Crochet

What gives me hope?

The support I have received regarding my crafting in my community gives me hope. I started off 4 years ago as a way to stay busy on weekends, then to keep me sane job hunting. This year I found my people in a local knit& crochet group and have made some things I never thought I could for my family and I have donated quite a few teddies to the All Saints Food Larder Christmas market.

Music also gives me hope and reminds me to take a moment to breathe and Just Be. If you need that reminder too check out the song Just Be by Dan Olsen. Or listen to any music you like and take a breather.

I hope this Crochet Star Blanket can help inspire and bring hope to someone who needs it. You can create what you want with enough time and patience

Don't forget being kind to all is free and helps more than you can imagine.

STAY WEIRD!

Made with Love from one neurodiverse girl for the community

Check out Tasha's work here: https://www.instagram.com/thewhaleycrafts/

Kevin - Author

I've been writing since childhood and have published one novel and a volume of short fiction. I've also had some short fiction and poetry published in assorted literary journals. I'm currently writing a novel loosely based on my own experiences of living with autism, and I'm trying to steer away from the usual stereotypical depictions. It's set in the background of social care, working with adults with learning disabilities - a career I went into in 2005, after leaving the Civil Service. It was working with these people, too, that gave me my first proper introduction to autism as a condition - and my first clues as to possibly having it myself. I finally got my diagnosis in 2015 (aged 56), followed in 2022 by a diagnosis of ADHD.

I'm also interested in script-writing, and have had a couple of short stage pieces performed by Chalkfoot Theatre Company. Recently, I completed a short story for the Canterbury Festival 2025 'Facing the Storm' Competition, currently being judged. I also enjoy doing digital artwork, playing the piano and cycling - though not all at once!

I live in Herne Bay with my cat Daisy. I've recently retired from work, which has given me all the time I need to catch up with the books I want to read and write.

You can find some of Kevin's work on Amazon (search Kevin Marman).

Simon - Piano

[bio]

Nick - Painting

I’m a synaesthetic and neurodivergent artist who came to art through a personal journey of discovery and recovery. For many years I learned to move through the world by holding parts of myself back, adapting constantly to be what was expected. Turning to art allowed me to step away from that and begin exploring a more authentic way of being.

My work translates internal sensations — shapes, colours and textures — into visual form, inviting viewers into a quiet language of memory, emotion and resilience. For me, art is a space where the unseen becomes visible and the unfamiliar gains a voice.

Entirely self-taught, my process is guided by intuition, experimentation and conversations with fellow artists. I work across black and white card, canvas, wood and found materials, using metallic inks, acrylics, fine liners and gel pens. Each piece unfolds organically, as a meditative and therapeutic act of listening and responding.

With a background in publishing, I honed the skill of imagining layers, masks and finishes before seeing the final result. Today, I channel that same instinct into revealing the sensory world within — one I’m only just beginning to understand and share.

Check out Nick's work here: https://www.instagram.com/nicky_nd_artist/

Tim - Guitar & Vocals

I write songs as they help me tie together disparate thoughts. Making them into a narrative which makes sense to me, bringing order to chaos. This gives me hope. Some songs are stories of things that have happened to me or I have seen or experienced. Or ideas I have come across which resonate.

In telling the story I am articulating feelings, making them manageable and concrete, bringing them down to size. In doing this I am separating myself from the feeling. I am not what I feel. I do not chose to have this feeling. But the feeling needs to be acknowledged, not ignored or denied. In this way music is a form of therapy for me.

There is an element of wanting to share my experience and ‘spread the word’. Whatever ‘the word’ is! The word is my perspective, what I have learnt so far in my life. This interesting nugget of information or philosophy I’m exploring in my head. I also want to challenge, amuse, annoy and delight. No pressure then!

I enjoy the crafting, almost mechanical element of writing: working with rhythm, rhyme, words and syllables to make lines fit together. The sound of words. How the proximity of different words affects each of them.

The actual coming together of a song: the lyrics, guitar chords and vocal melody line, is intuitive to me. I just play around with things until something fits. I don’t know why it fits or on what basis I’m making that judgement. But that’s ok. I don’t need to know how it happens. I’m just pleased and amazed when it does.

I also like the ambiguity of lyrics: what means something to you can mean something completely different to you. And that’s ok. We can both get something out of the song. And we can share an emotional connection via a song with each other even though we feel it in very different ways.

I sing in a choir. I think humans are designed to sing and make music together. It is hard-wired in to us. It’s good for us.

We are all meant to do this.

Millie - Charcoal Drawing

‘The Light’ was painted in 2022, one year after my dad was hospitalised for attempted suicide when I was thirteen. The process of this painting helped me explore the complex emotions I experienced as a child witnessing a parent in such a distressing state, and the impact navigating rehabilitation has on a parent/child relationship, especially when both parties are neurodivergent. Behind the dark clouds, I painted in reds and blues. As an observer looks at the piece from different angles under natural light, new depth and hints of colour appear beneath the darkness, revealed by ‘The Light’.

Harry - Spoken Word

Harry is a skateboard coach, poet, and founder of Shred Academy, where creativity, style, and confidence come first. With a passion for sharing skateboarding as a tool for self-expression and resilience, Harry works with young people of all abilities, including many who are neurodiverse. Their poetry, like their skating, explores freedom, hope, and finding balance in unexpected places.

Scott - Videography

Scott Kingsnorth, writer, artist, idiot, 44. He knows his onions. EG: Scallions, they’re onions. Scott was once rude to Vanessa Feltz on tv. He owns George Forman grill and is looking forward to Christmas.

Check out Scott's work here: https://www.youtube.com/@immakingamovie1379