Finding Ground

Ground is what we stand on without thinking about it - until we can't anymore.

This year taught me about losing it.

The Earth Beneath (2025) from the series Finding Ground (2025)

2025 has been intense. The world feels unsettled in ways that are hard to name. Politically, financially, so much shifting at once. I'm watching people I don't know and people I do know suffer: tremendous family grief, friends losing work, many people struggling mentally, and many more facing dark uncertain times. Some days the weight of it all feels overwhelming. Witnessing and living all of this - carrying the weight of it, navigating how to support people you love and it never feeling enough? - it changes you.

For me personally, this year brought genuine fear. I had multiple aphasia episodes - losing the ability to speak - including the most recent one in Denmark during 3 Days of Design that landed me in a Danish hospital. I spent five months under the stroke clinic, stepping away from everything to focus on health, simple routines and my family

.

Hand pleating and stitching became my meditation

Then came redundancy from a startup consultancy I'd worked with for two years. An amazing team of creatives and genuine friends, who I loved to see and create with. At first it felt like another loss - but it's eventually become clarity. I'd been missing my art practice, spreading myself too thin.

Perhaps it was a sign that I needed to dive in more fully to the work that truly calls me.

So I've realized and learned that taking time for capacity and growth - even when forced by circumstances - can sometimes yield more creative and positive outcomes than pushing through. Rest is needed, and we should trust ourselves on this, even when (especially when) it's scary.

If you need to hear this today: it's okay to step back. To honor your need for time and space without a timeline or a to-do list attached. To trust that rest isn't lost productivity - it's its own form of creative work. The ground will still be here when you're ready to stand on it again.

What emerged from my own rest is my new series Finding Ground (2025) - five textile works about steadiness, presence, and the quiet joy of finding your footing again.

Thank you for being here while I've been finding my way back,

With gratitude, Nikki

Finding Ground series 2025. Hung expertly by Monty Black :)