Kintsugi Mistress (Unshackled Muses Series - Self Portrait)

Simone Sequeira of STUDIO SIMMI makes art from the places where cracks meet colour. Neuroqueer and Aussie-born to immigrant parents, she once lived in the black-and-white world of a mech eng grad before psych care cracked her open. Group and one-on-one art therapy became her lifeline, handing her a sense of purpose and a reason to soldier on through making - messy, grounding, and gloriously imperfect.

Her practice - lino-carving, palette-knife painting, and mixed media - refuses to sit quietly. It flips fragility into resilience and silence into visibility. In 2023, she also faced the big C, a season that sharpened her radical self-acceptance and her knack for falling forward.

Now STUDIO SIMMI is carving up a storm with creative prescriptions: work that’s functional, accessible, affordable, and disruptive. Her art pokes, laughs, and connects - hoping to spark vulnerable conversations, raising divergent voices in mental health, and reminding us all to play with our hands again and prioritise mindful moments in our everyday to-do lists!

Follow Simone on Instagram.

This series celebrates the unwavering power of sapphic identities and culture through cameo-style silhouettes, exploring themes of love, resilience, rebellion, visibility, and self-acceptance. The 'Kintsugi Mistress' is a self-sabotaging unicorn who once believed she only deserved love and pleasure through pain. Through self-reclamation, she pieces herself together, finding strength in her fractures and resilience in being unbroken. Now, she moves with purpose - honouring her desires, seeking deeper and more respectful connections, living free from shame, being authentic, and loving without limits.