A Year of Taking Up Space (Without Apologising)
A Year of Taking Up Space (Without Apologising) is a year-long feminist art series exploring identity, femininity, power, and self-trust through monthly limited edition art prints. Each work responds to an emotional state women are often taught to minimise, justify, or suppress.
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Exploring permission — not as something to be earned or granted, but as something internal, embodied, and reclaimed.
Each month presents a single work responding to a state women are often taught to justify, suppress, or perform: permission, desire, voice, visibility, autonomy, joy, rest, boundaries, ambition, anger, self-trust, and legacy.
The project resists the language of slogans, self-help, and empowerment culture. Instead, it offers a quieter, more confrontational approach, asking what happens when permission is no longer requested, but claimed.
This is not work about becoming louder.
It is work about becoming truer.
The series does not reject femininity, nor does it position strength in opposition to softness. Femininity is presented as expressive, intentional, and self-possessed — capable of holding warmth alongside certainty, and gentleness alongside boundaries.
The works follow an intentional emotional arc rather than a linear progression. Beginning with Permission — the internal shift where possibility is acknowledged — the series moves through desire, visibility, rest, confrontation, and ultimately toward self-trust and legacy. Each piece exists independently; together, they form a narrative.
This project does not promise resolution or transformation. Some works are tender; others remain unresolved. That tension is deliberate.
Taking up space is not a performance.
It is a practice.
A year long art project is about permission.
Permission to want more.
Permission to be seen.
Permission to rest.
Permission to take up space — without shrinking, softening, or explaining why.
Each month in this series explores a state women are often taught to earn, justify, or suppress. Not as slogans. Not as self-help. But as something embodied, lived, and reclaimed.
This work is not about becoming louder.
It’s about becoming truer.
Femininity Is Not the Opposite of Power
This project is not about rejecting femininity.
It does not ask women to harden, flatten, or perform strength in a way that feels unnatural. It does not confuse confidence with aggression, or self-trust with emotional distance.
You can be feminine — soft, expressive, sensual, playful — and still have a voice.
You can be warm and still have boundaries.
You can be gentle and still be certain of yourself.
Taking up space does not require becoming someone else.
It requires becoming more yourself.
The Story We’ve Been Told
We are taught, early and often, to minimise ourselves — our voices, our needs, our ambition, our anger, our joy. To be grateful instead of honest. Palatable instead of powerful. Polite instead of whole.
We are praised for being “easy”, “low maintenance”, “not too much”.
This series asks a quieter, more dangerous question:
What happens when you stop asking for permission — and start giving it to yourself?
The Arc
This year moves deliberately.
Not forward in a straight line, but deeper.
It begins with Permission — the internal moment when something shifts and you realise the world might be yours, after all.
It moves through Desire, Voice, and Visibility — the unsettling process of admitting what you want, saying it out loud, and allowing yourself to be seen.
It passes through Autonomy, Joy, and Rest — states often denied unless they are productive, useful, or justified.
It confronts Boundaries, Ambition, and Anger — the places where women are most often told they are “too much”.
It ends with Self-Trust and Legacy — the quiet power of knowing yourself, standing by your decisions, and leaving something behind that reflects who you really were.
Each piece stands alone.
Together, they tell a story.
This Is Not About Perfection
This project does not promise transformation.
It does not offer neat answers or polished conclusions.
Some months will feel soft.
Others will feel uncomfortable.
That tension is intentional.
Taking up space is not a performance.
It’s a practice.
An Invitation
You don’t need to buy anything to be part of this.
You don’t need to agree with every piece.
If you recognise yourself here — in the wanting, the resistance, the quiet rebellion — then this work is for you.
This is art for women who are done shrinking themselves to stay likeable, while still honouring their femininity, complexity, and emotional depth.
A year of taking up space.
Without apologising
