I’m Still Here

Mikarla Teague is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based artist and art therapist whose work explores themes of identity, grief, healing, and social justice. Informed by her lived experience with mental illness, she creates evocative mixed media works that highlight Queer narratives, neurodivergent perspectives, and the resilience found in vulnerability. 

For Mikarla, art is both a lifeline and a form of activism - offering visibility, gentleness, and solidarity to others moving through darkness. With each brushstroke, she transforms survival into beauty.

Follow Mikarla on Instagram and check out her website.

I created this piece during a time I felt erased—by the world, by systems, by my own mind. Every mark, every colour screams the truth: I am still here. Amid chaos and stigma, I refuse to be silenced or forgotten. This work is my protest, my pulse, my proof of survival. It honours every messy, loud, beautiful part of being alive with mental illness. I made it to be seen.