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Grief, and the Way We Learn to Carry It Grief is one of the most universal human experiences, and yet one of the least honestly spoken about. We all encounter it in different forms and at different times—through the loss of a parent, a loved one, a relationship, a version of ourselves, a future we imagined, a sense of safety, health, home, or meaning. Despite how common grief is, many of us grow up without being taught how to be with it . Instead, we are often taught—directly

There are moments in life that divide us quietly into a before  and an after . This painting was born in one of those moments. I was in my car when the phone rang. It was my brother. His voice was calm in the way people become when they are trying not to frighten you. He said Mum wasn’t well. That she was sick. That things weren’t great. And I did what I always did back then—I tried to reason my way out of fear. Don’t worry,  I said. Nothing can happen. Even Mum’s aunty is st

There is a kind of loss that doesn’t come with flowers or condolences. A loss no one prepares you for. It happens quietly. One day, you realise the life you built your entire body around is no longer possible. Not because you stopped wanting it. Not because you lacked discipline or passion. But because staying has already cost you more than you knew it would. I didn’t choose to leave my career. I loved it. I worked for it. I shaped my identity around it for most of my life. I

By Monicartist Eight-Week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction A Gentle Path Back to Presence This eight-week mindfulness and stress reduction program was born during my time as a patient in hospital. While I was at Robina Private Hospital, I noticed something that stayed with me. Many people around me were suffering deeply — physically, emotionally, mentally — yet had never been shown how  to be with their experience. They wanted relief, calm, grounding… but they didn’t know w

By Monicartist Some journeys are not about healing. They are about remembering . Faces of Becoming  is a portrait series that explores the quiet, powerful evolution of womanhood — not as a linear transformation, but as a layered remembering of self. These women are not captured in moments of fragility or recovery; they exist at thresholds — between who they were, who they are, and who they have always been beneath expectation. This series was born from my fascination with ide

By Monicartist As women, we move through many versions of ourselves. Some are gentle, some are strong, some are quiet, and some are formed in moments we never planned for. The feminine life journey is not linear — it loops, pauses, breaks open, and rebuilds itself again and again. This series, was created as a reflection of that journey. Each painting represents a phase many women experience throughout life — not in a fixed order, but as emotional chapters we revisit as we gr

By Monicartist The Flower Field  expressive series is my imagination of freedom. It is the feeling of dancing through open fields of flowers—barefoot, uncontained, and fully alive—under the warmth of the sun and the softness of night. These paintings are not based on a single place or moment. They are based on a longing: to move freely, to exist without restraint, and to belong to yourself completely. This series is a celebration of wildness. Wild Flowers, Wild Being What dra

By Monicartist Botanical Reverie  is an expressive floral series that unfolds slowly—layer by layer, moment by moment. Rather than beginning with a fixed idea or emotional intention, this body of work is created through allowing . The paintings are not directed toward a predetermined outcome. Instead, they evolve over time, responding to what already exists on the canvas. What emerges is not imposed—it is discovered. This series lives in a state of reverie: a quiet, inward dr

Garden Within Her  is an expressive floral series that represents my inner world. There is no figure in these works, because the flowers themselves are  the presence. They hold emotion, memory, and experience in a way that feels more honest to me than form or narrative. Through florals, I express what lives within—what is felt rather than seen. This series is not about painting flowers as objects. It is about using florals as a language. Flowers as Emotion In Garden Within He

By Monicartist The World Under Ocean  abstract series was inspired by my earliest memories of snorkeling as a child in the Mediterranean Sea, and later by returning to that same underwater stillness while living in Australia. Long before I understood art or abstraction, I learned what it felt like to slip beneath the surface of water—to float, to breathe slowly, and to enter a world that felt separate from everything above. Underwater, the noise softened, movement slowed, and

By Monicartist An Abstract Series Inspired by Western Australia The Western Land, Water & Light  abstract series was born while traveling through Western Australia—standing between ocean and earth, light and shadow, silence and scale. Western Australia has a way of stripping everything back. The vast coastline, the ancient rock formations, the dense rainforest, and the endless meeting of land and sea create a presence that feels older than language. Being there, I didn’t feel

Monicartist There are places that hold your heart when language fails you. For me, those places have always been the ocean and flowers. Saltwater & Petals  is a series born from emotional landscapes rather than physical ones — a world where blooms meet tides, and storms swirl without destroying the softness beneath them. These paintings are textured, layered, and intuitive. They carry the mood of a coastal dream: sometimes turbulent, sometimes quiet, always honest. After losi

by Monicartist Why I Created These Meditations For the last few years, my inner world has been active, vivid, and persistent. My dreams — sometimes intense, sometimes tender, sometimes difficult to name — have not belonged neatly to the past, and they don’t arrive only occasionally. They recur. They evolve. They return in different forms, carrying emotional weight that doesn’t dissolve when morning comes. When I wake, the feeling often remains — in my body, in my chest, in th

How Listening to My Body Shapes My Art and My Healing By Monicartist My art does not fit in a single box — and it was never meant to. I paint abstract female figures , expressive florals , realistic details , semi-realistic pieces , and fully abstract works . To many people, these look like completely different collections. But for me, they are simply different expressions of the same inner world. They are the emotional languages my body chooses to speak on any given day. Som

by Monicartist There are moments in life when everything familiar falls apart — when the world that once made sense suddenly feels foreign, and the person you thought you were no longer fits the life you’re living. That was me. For years, I lived in a world of precision and logic. I had built a career in engineering, completed my PhD, and spent my days chasing deadlines and validation. From the outside, it looked like success. But inside, I was quietly unraveling. The pressur

By Monicartist When people see my paintings, they often say, “You must really love flowers.” And I do — but not just for how they look. For me, flowers are more than subjects; they’re teachers. I didn’t start painting them because I wanted to create something pretty. I started because I was trying to find a way to breathe again. After years of pushing through stress, pain, and trauma — after losing my career, my health, and a part of myself — I needed something gentle to hold

By Monicartist There are paintings that come from imagination — and then there are those that come from survival. Both Flame of Her  and Rise of Her  were born during seasons when I didn’t think I had much left to give. I remember the period leading up to Flame of Her . I was exhausted — not just physically, but emotionally. My body was in pain, my mind was scattered, and I felt like I was carrying invisible weight that no one could see. I had already left behind my career in

By Monicartist I didn’t start this painting with a clear image in mind. There was no sketch, no plan — just a deep ache in my chest that wanted to come out somehow. The studio was quiet that morning. I remember staring at the blank canvas for a long time, feeling that familiar heaviness — that mix of exhaustion, sadness, and longing I know too well. And then, I just began to paint. The first colours were deep, almost bruised reds — the kind that hold both beauty and pain. As