Sara Hood Lancashire, United Kingdom

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I am a neurodivergent artist making art about living with neurodiversity through ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, installation and sculpting. I was born with autism, am dyslexic, have a high IQ, went through an event aged 17 and then another linked event aged 18 that left me with PTSD and that caused developmental issues in my brain leading to the symptoms of ADHD now being prevalent.

My research based work takes me to many unexpected places and with varying, yet always satisfyingly creative results. I combine language, lore, symbolism and cultural references with personal experience to investigate and creatively process the conditions myself and others face living day to day.

A lot of my work references or is about my PTSD but that revolves around my experience living with it as a long term disability and the life changes and barriers that I and others with the same condition now face. Whilst references are occasionally made to triggers, my work contains no information about my trauma experience. For me that is not important to my work. It happened over half my life ago and in the timeline of my life was a series of short events. However it has impacted my entire life following and that is what I explore and look at, how life has changed, the before trauma life and the post trauma life but not the event itself. That is past what I live now is important and worth exploring and finding out more about.

I am currently exploring the subject of living with the effects of PTSD and finding a way to both convey this and start up meaningful conversations through installation based ceramic sculpture. I use the rabbit as the central agent in my work with its strong associations to the fight, flight or freeze response, which is also so deeply associated with PTSD and also other neurodiversity's. The rabbit also acts in some of my works as a personal reference due to me being born in the zodiac year of the rabbit.

All ceramics no matter how varied they look and how varied their function, come from the same base material - clay from earth. Much in the same way all humans are of the same carbon base yet no two are the same although we can be linked together through experiences and culture. Bearing this analogy in mind, and with the human experience of PTSD at the forefront of my work, clay lends itself as a very meaningful material to pursue.

What I produce varies depending on what particular theme I am pursuing, what narrative it has and what relevance the materials have to the visual language of the piece.

Many examples of my work can be seen on my website.

www.sarahoodfineart.com