me

About me:

My name's Sandra, Sani for short and I live in England. My childhood was spent in a picturesque village with open fields, a small village shop, primary school and 2 pubs!

I am the youngest of 5 children (the "baby" of the family) and I've been drawing since the age of 4 when I held my first pencil! Both drawing and writing have always been a great of love of mine and all things creative. I remember getting my first GIANT pack of felt-tips, Wow, all those colours! I would just have to use every one of them in my pictures

When I left school I really wanted and intended to go to Art College, but when I was offered a job I took that instead

In hindsight. . . I should have gone to Art College!

I have for the past 12 years or so been suffering from the Anxiety Disorder OCD ~ Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, during this time my drawing and writing have taken a back seat.

Then, at a time when I was experiencing severe Panic attacks and hyperventilating a lot I turned to help from an Organization called "No Panic," and spoke to someone who suggested I should do something to take my mind off these feelings. I started drawing and writing again and found both these things to be very therapeutic. They were the only things powerfull enough to distract my mind. Armed with a new tin of 72 coloured pencils and a fresh notepad, the drawings and poems started coming fast and furious. Unfortunately, due to the OCD I didn't have the luxury of exploring the countryside in search of things to sketch, so I had to rely on my creative imagination. I started writing down my thoughts and feelings mostly in poetry but I also wrote some stories. When I reached the grand total of 90 poems! I decided to pur some of the more desriptive ones together with Illustrations.

The poetry has been an excellent way of expressing my inner feelings and emotions ~ and indeed my anger and frustration ~ in a "free" way when everything else in my life was very "controlled" by the illness. Some of my poems therefore are perhaps quite sad and meaningful but there are also amusing and happy one's.