Honestly I Just Want to Feel Good About Myself

Carmen Seaby is a feminist artist who works with paper and textile collage, incorporating traditional sewing and stitching techniques to create banners, wall hangings, and wearable artworks. Her practice communicates ideas, feelings, and messages drawn from her experiences as a queer white woman navigating the contemporary Australian political space. 

Through her art, Carmen explores and reimagines the values and ideas she believes should be part of the modern political discourse. Having experienced serious mental ill health throughout her teens, twenties, and thirties, Carmen now reflects on these struggles in her forties by weaving them into artwork.

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This artwork represents the lifelong work one needs to do on oneself when dealing with mental illness and healing from childhood trauma. Years of therapy and community building can improve your sense of self, but a few life struggles can make it all feel like you’re back to square one.