My Mind is Messy - THRIVE Anthology 2023

My Mind is Messy

An anthology of images & words from year 7 - 9 thrive representatives

My Mind is Messy In January, THRIVE Representatives in Years 7 to 9 took part in Creative Health workshops to explore ways in which art, culture and creative thinking can help us to reflect on ourselves and support ways to well-being.

We explored working fast and slow, valuing mistakes, using challenges to spark new ideas and to get into flow states, and trialled new things to expand our creative repertoire. We worked collaboratively and also had time to focus by ourselves.

These creative experiments were part of the process we used to develop narratives for the short films we are making. We have collected some examples of our process together in this anthology. It includes short quotations from our personal writing and images generated from our continuous line-drawing and collage experiments.

Our personal writing was inspired by memory exercises and a word bank drawn from Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'. We have also included quotations from books and songs that we enjoy.

We learned how to use a variety of generative AI tools with filmmaker Javier de Prado and have begun to work on producing content for our films and the editing process.

Some of us are working towards the Royal Society for Public Health's 'Creative Health Certificate'. For this we will use what we have learned in the workshops and other design sessions to produce some creative health activities for our school.

We will present an exhibition of the images we made in the workshops and look forward to sharing our films.

In the Easter holidays, there will be 10 days of creative health activities for young people in Bolton which are part of school's 2024 creative health project. More news about this coming soon!

This project is part of a NW schools programme funded and facilitated by Curious Minds in conjunction with BeeWell and the Royal Society of Public Health.

An anthology of images & words from year 7 - 9 thrive representatives

“It is only with heart that one can see rightly what is essential is invisible to the eye” - the little prince

I begin to believe And through my creation I speak For spirit and love and nature and loss Naoise

I come from the ones I meet And my heart, my mind Aleeza I speak with love And celebrate limitless spirit Salma

I am a voice And I speak For I live I assume the good My spirit stands stiff Born with health and heart I wait for days to pass Hoping we will watch the years as sisters Imilce

I love how the field's air sings I lie and rest, watching days and nights pass Patsy

"Every stranger makes me feel safer, and every person seems more beautiful" - sylvia plath

"We gather stones, Never knowing what they’ll mean, Some to throw, some to make a diamond."

- taylor swift

I am not without love And I know what I own For I have knowledge I hum I sing My mind is limitless Born with heart Emma

I have to go And celebrate that my sisters are born.

Olivia

Who is knocking?

Let them enter.

Come into the den, Open the door.

Laiba

I am me And as I voice my words, my mind stops For the people have reached my soul – I witness compassion I never knew.

Maya

"You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

- winnie the pooh

"You promised me I was more than all the miles combined."

- noah kahan I have scabs For I live without mind of hazard I spread compassion I sing to soothe the doubtful Hilary A tall man and a small girl with braids They walk and talk He carries her up the stairs in his arms when she sleeps Samiah I love music, new days and nature And permit nights, money and death You never know what is coming next Grace

I am born myself A soul without knowledge Bare-stripped, inward A place that is peace.

Then it came: War on the news.

Isabelle

I come to the city I believe I belong For these people spread good spirit.

Anjali

"you will get a lot out of your time at Malory Towers, see that you give a lot back."

- miss grayling

"You’re just as sane as I am."

- luna lovegood I am curious And love good discoveries I do not want to be forgotten And sing throughout my days Nimi

My mind is messy: Like a box of chocolates as Forest Gump said Hoping to be 'perfect' Travelling to escape reality Holding on to memories Transported to different dimensions by music.

Zara

I am a woman And I believe other women That every voice belongs Rosalind

My dad used to help me to get the bike out of the garage every summer.

My brother's room is no longer his room.

Instead, it is the room where we keep the old books and toys now.

Lucy

"Don’t let your emotions get the best of your intelligence."

- unknown

"the rest of the world was black and white, But we were in screaming color."

- taylor swift

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

Walt Whitman

‘I am made and re-made continually.’

Virginia Woolf

‘Words are symbols that assume a shared memory.’

Jorge Luis Borges

"If you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.

You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something."

Neil Gaiman

"‘There are things which are not sayable which is why we have art."

Leonora Carrington

"The opposite of the beautiful is not the ugly but the useful, the good for."

Hannah Arendt

by maya, olivia, naoise, rosalind, samiah, lucy, emma, aleeza, laiba, anjali, isabelle, grace, patsy, zara, salma, imilce, hilary & nimi