Trusting the Road: The Unseen Side of Creative Work

Over the past year, I’ve poured much of my time, energy and heart into building

Imaginative Reaction. A platform created not just for showcasing art, but for holding space. For grief, for recovery, for expression, for healing. For human beings.

It all began with a friend. A creative soul named Nick Fraser, whose artistic voice was bold, honest and unfiltered.. yet, for much of his life, remained largely unseen. When Nick passed, I felt the weight of his story and his journey with my father. His paintings, once deeply personal, became urgent messages: "Don’t let this be forgotten."

So, I created Imaginative Reaction. At first, it was about preserving Nick’s legacy, sharing his work, giving him the voice that society too often silences in men navigating mental health and identity. But it quickly evolved into something much more. It became a meeting point for artists, creators, musicians and poets who all carried a similar truth: art is not just decoration. Art is survival.

Art and Mental Health: Not a Luxury, a Lifeline

Having worked for over a decade in youth services, teaching music production, alternative education, and creative expression to young people, I’ve seen it firsthand: art gives people a way to make sense of what they’re carrying. It gives a name to emotions that feel too complex to speak out loud.

More Than Medium: How Artists on the Platform Create to Heal, Connect, and Survive

What binds so many of the artists on Imaginative Reaction isn’t just talent, it’s the way creativity has become a form of resilience. For some, it’s a quiet protest. For others, it’s survival.

Ellis King, for instance, didn’t just pick up a paintbrush to decorate a canvas. Her journey into art began after one of the most difficult chapters of her life — the trauma of fertility treatment, a high-risk pregnancy, and weeks spent by her premature baby’s side in the neonatal intensive care unit. In her own words, when she returned home, “I couldn’t find the words for what I’d lived through. So I started painting… not for anyone else — just to survive it.”

What emerged from that silence were striking portraits of women — “women carrying pain, women holding themselves together”. Her art became a channel for truth-telling, giving voice to the often-invisible realities of motherhood, trauma, and the quiet endurance so many women carry. For Ellis, painting is no longer just an outlet — it’s a mission: “to tell the truth… about the things we endure.”

For Adrian Michael Wildsmith, art also arrived not just as expression but as lifeline. Though he had long been involved in the creative world, it wasn’t until experiencing a dramatic downturn in his mental health that art took on a new role — one of healing, recalibration, and reconnection. Years of exploration, trial, and error eventually brought him to a practice that now merges painting and poetry, and a life dedicated to mental health advocacy through his work with the Mind charity. Adrian’s art is luminous, expressive, and full of emotion.

Proof that from the darkest places, beauty can grow.

And at the very heart of Imaginative Reaction is the legacy of Nick Fraser,

a man who spent 30 years quietly painting, unsure if the world would ever truly understand or accept his story. Living in a time when being vulnerable, or being different, could isolate rather than include, Nick's artwork became his refuge.

His visual language - expressive, raw, poetic, held parts of himself that words couldn’t carry.

It’s a heartbreak that it took his passing for his work to reach so many, but also a gift that his story now inspires a wider conversation on acceptance, emotion, and the need for spaces where people can just be. These artists — like many others on the platform — remind us that creativity is not just about aesthetics. It’s about catharsis. It’s how we make sense of what’s happened to us. It’s how we survive it. It’s how we connect to each other.

Building the Platform: Behind Closed Doors and Open Hearts

In the quieter months after Nick’s first exhibition, I turned inward. Not just emotionally, but creatively. I began quietly building the Imaginative Reaction website — inviting artists whose work I admired, reaching out through messages, Instagram threads, and often just gut feeling. Some I had known for years. Others, I stumbled across through algorithms and late-night scrolling sessions. But in every case, what drew me in wasn’t just style or skill — it was the honesty in their work.

I wanted the platform to reflect that honesty. So we’ve showcased not just art, but the stories behind it — the battles, the breakthroughs, the quiet triumphs of creation. And the response has been incredibly humbling. Each artist page feels like a living conversation and as more people step forward, it’s becoming clearer to me: this platform isn’t just about art. It’s about human connection.

A Growing Voice in a Noisy World

Mental health doesn’t always make headlines. Neither do independent artists trying to find space in a commercialised system. But together, these voices are powerful.

That’s why I’m working to develop a podcast arm for Imaginative Reaction — a space where artists can share their journeys in their own words. No scripts, no filters, just real conversations about what it means to create through challenge.

It’s also why we’re hosting events like the Young Creatives Art Exhibition this August, giving children the chance to see their work exhibited and celebrated. Because confidence starts young — and sometimes all it takes is seeing your drawing on a gallery wall to believe in yourself for the first time.

Moving Forward, Together

There are still so many ideas to bring to life — more exhibitions, artist meetups, and collaborative projects in the pipeline. But through it all, one thing remains unchanged: Imaginative Reaction is about community, creativity, and care.

Need Support? You're Not Alone

At Imaginative Reaction, we also know that art is just one piece of a wider picture. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please remember that support is out there and you're never alone in what you're feeling. Whether through art therapy, talking to someone, or just being seen — your story matters.

Here are some organisations that offer both general and creative-based mental health support:

• 🧠 Mind – Nationwide mental health charity offering information, local support and creative therapies. www.mind.org.uk

• 🧵 Studio Upstairs – Creative community and therapeutic arts organisation based in London and Bristol. www.studioupstairs.org.uk

• 🎭 Creativity Works – Promoting wellbeing through art, writing and performance workshops. www.creativityworks.org.uk

• 💬 Samaritans – Free, confidential emotional support 24/7. Call 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org

• 🎨 Arts and Minds (Cambridge-based, but inspirational) – Fostering mental wellbeing through the arts. www.artsandminds.org.uk

  
  

Art can help us say the unsayable — but there’s strength in asking for help too. If you’re in need, we hope one of these platforms can offer a hand to hold while you find your next creative step, or drop me a message and I'd be happy to chat.

In a world that’s often overwhelming, isolating, or simply too fast — we need places that hold space for art, for expression, and for people.

If you’ve found this blog, or the platform, or even just a piece of artwork here that moved you, thank you. You’re a part of this story too.

Let’s keep going, keep creating and keep evolving together.