03/09/2026
EDIT: Thank you all so much for your beautiful comments and support, I'm completely blown away! Feels like a warm hug and a high five rolled into one!
IMPOSTER SYNDROME VS BIGGLES
I entered two paintings into the Bundaberg Art Prize this year, and the days before I submitted them were harder than I expected. I kept second guessing whether I was "artist enough" to put my work forward alongside "real artists". That discomfort wasn't really about the paintings, it was imposter syndrome talking.
I bravely submitted them anyway, doubts and all.
Then I walked into a room full of art and saw my paintings hanging among so many other local artists, and something shifted. There they were, holding their own. The happiness that moment gave me was real and it was simple, just the quiet joy of belonging somewhere I'd talked myself out of belonging just days before.
None of us are ever fully resolved, and growth moves through discomfort for all of us.
Bundaberg Art Prize