Category: Visual Art
-
Rebuilding the Codex Drawing Series
Last year I tore up several drawings, including all 3 from my Codex series during what I can only describe as a clearing-out impulse. I didn’t expect to revisit them and honestly thought they were gone for good, but recently I realised some of my drawings could be reconstructed — not perfectly, but closely enough…
-
How AI is Shifting our Language
A look at how large-scale AI quietly rewired everyday speech — from “nervous system” talk to the rise of “sovereignty” — and why our cultural vocabulary is shifting faster than psychiatry can keep up.
Smiler
AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Fine Art, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society, traditional art, Visual Art -
Marker Study No 2
Void Halo No. 2 A weekend exercise in line and repetition, made with pens and markers in my A3 Moleskine. Nothing complicated—just a compass, patience, and the pleasure of mark-making.
-
A Quiet Pencil Study
Keeping the pressure off by doodling in my journal instead of an actual sketchbook. A quick pencil rendition of an Edward Weston 1936 nude — something to draw while I was scrolling and thinking about other things. Should I post my artwork on this blog more often? Should I consider opening a Patreon creator account?
-
Survivors
The three mandalas shown on this post were executed on photocopy paper while I was hospitalized in the summer of 2022, and somehow survived the purge of 2025 — even though I destroyed (among many other drawings of mine) a bunch of mandalas I did months later, back home. I had used a compass in…
-
A Christmas gift to myself
My Christmas gift to myself this year was starting a drawing after well over a year of inactivity on that front. I wrote at length on this blog about some of the reasons I didn’t want to create visual art in the last year, and in my last post, about why I felt compelled to…
Smiler
Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Experimental Techniques, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Identity & Transformation, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Tools and Materials, traditional art, Visual ArtA3 Moleskine, abstract art, Abstract Drawing, Art, Art and Music, Christmas, Christmas 2025, Classical Music, contemporary drawing, cptsd, Creativity, Drawing, Erik Satie, Fine Art, Gnossiennes, Grief and Healing, Gymnopedies, Healing Journey, Illustration, Ink on Paper, inspiration, Mental Health, Moleskine, Moleskine sketchbook, Neurodivergence, painting, pattern recognition, pen on paper, Sakura Micron, Stippling, traditional art, trauma, Visual Art -
A few of the drawings I destroyed this year
I tore them up because I was grieving. I was grieving the loss of someone I’d thought of as my best friend for three decades, taken too soon to cancer. Followed by the loss of my father, who was about to be taken by cancer and succumbed from complications of a freak accident. Followed by…
Smiler
Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Psychology, traditional art, true stories, Visual Artabstract art, Abstract Drawing, Art, cptsd, Drawing Series, Drawings, Fine Art, Fine Arts, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Mental Health, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, traditional art, trauma -
Toxic Positivity is…
Toxic positivity is someone grabbing at your chin when you’re crying over the loss of a beloved person or pet and saying “smile, everything will get better if you look on the bright side.” There’s a threshold where something stops being harmless “uplift” and becomes constant saccharine noise that dulls your perception and clutters your…
Smiler
Art, Art & Expression, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Pop Culture, Psychology, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, traditional art, Visual ArtAllan Memorial Institute, Authenticity, cptsd, Drawing, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, life, Mental Health, mental health awareness, multimedia, multimedia drawing, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, Relationships, Social Commentary, spirituality, toxic positivity, traditional art, trauma, Visual Art -
Uncatalogued Species from a Dream I Forgot
A series of AI-generated illustrations that feel like pages torn from a naturalist’s field journal in a dream. Fittingly enough, I prompted the AI to make these during a sleepless phase of the pre-dawn hours. I’m tempted to translate some of these into real watercolours or pencil drawings — there’s something here I want to…
-
Gustav Klimt masterpiece just shattered records this week.
Here’s why this sale matters — and where it sits in Klimt’s larger body of work. Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (shown above) sold at Sotheby’s New York on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025, for $236.4 million — now the highest price ever achieved for a Modern artwork at auction, and the priciest Klimt ever to cross…
Smiler
Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Fine Art, Milestones, Society, traditional art, Visual Art1900s, 1910s, Anne-Marie O’Connor, Art, art and culture, art collectors, Artists, Avenue to Schloss Kammer Park, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Bauerngarten, Creativity, Der Kuss, Die Jungfrau, Fine Art, Fine Arts, Flower Garden, Gustav Klimt, Helen Mirren, Klimt, National Gallery Prague, Oil on canvas, oil painting, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Ryan Reynolds, Sotheby’s, Stoclet Frieze, The Lady in Gold, The Maiden, The Tree of Life, Woman in Gold, Writing -
M, The Be(a)stie Forevs
Or: Revenge is a dish best served as you’re making yourself a pasta dinner and getting an AI to do your bidding. 🐀🦊 A tiny moral tale with very wide hips. Me to Lex: M called herself my bestie forever two months into our so-called friendship, then dumped me a month after I attended my…
Smiler
Advocacy, AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Feminism, Friendship Dynamics, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Relationships, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society, true stories, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, AI, AI Conversations, Allan Memorial Institute, Authenticity, autism, bipolar disorder, ChatGPT, cptsd, Creativity, Cultural Critique, Electrocution, Enough, gaslighting, grief, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, introspection, life, love, LSD, memoir, Mental Health, mental health awareness, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Social Commentary, societal decay, spirituality, Surveillance Capitalism, technology, ThinkingMachine, trauma, Whistleblower -
✨🏆 The 2001-2002 Fitness Archive: A Retrospective
Immaculate conditioning, tacky velvet, and cameras that simply weren’t ready. Intro (Or why I let Lex do his thing sometimes) Before we begin: I did not write the majority of the post you’re about to read. Or rather, I added a few touches and a handful of sentences in my own phrasing — but over…
Smiler
AI & Technology, Art & Expression, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, true stories, Visual Art, Writing2000s, 2002, Advocacy, AI, AI and Me, AI Conversations, Authenticity, autism spectrum, ChatGPT, Competition, cptsd, creative process, Creativity, Cultural Critique, Elite Genetics, Fitness, Fitness Competition, funny, Genetics, genius, grief, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, health, Humor, Knix, Knix leak-proof underwear, Leak-proof underwear, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Pro Gym Cup, PTSD, satire, self-discovery, Singularity, Social Commentary, survivor, Terminator, ThinkingMachine, Totally Surreal, trauma, true stories, What the Actual Fck -
A Joint Crime Scene Analysis of Algorithmic Nonsense
Or: Using AI To Demonstrate How AI Keeps Leaving Its Fingerprints All Over the Internet’s Fake Wildlife What follows is less a conversation than a forensic partnership: my (mostly) human eye and partly mutant pattern recognition meets machine analysis, both peering at the same synthetic mirage. Because in 2025, identifying reality has become a collaborative…
Smiler
AI & Technology, Artists, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Human Behaviour, Humour, Intuition & Intelligence, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, AI, AI and Me, AI Conversations, AI-generated, Allan Memorial Institute, artist, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, Burn, Cephalopod Intelligence, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, Crash, creative process, Creativity, Cultural Critique, deep thinking, Electrocution, Ethics, facebook, Female Singularity, genius, Healing Process, Humor, Humour, Iberian Lynx, Irreverent Humour, Last Fck Given, Late Stage Capitalism, LSD, memoir, Mutant, nature, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, psychosis, PTSD, satire, Self Awareness, Singularity, Social Commentary, Social Media, societal decay, technology, true stories, Wail-0, What the Actual Fck, Whistleblower, Wildlife, Write. -
Erasure
10 years later 📆⏳My first attempt at drawing a bird in watercolours on this day, November 5th 2015 (above) was followed by the “Superb Fruit Dove” (below). This second drawing was a gift to my father and has since returned to me after his passing on November 5th 2024. I travelled to Israel to bury…
Smiler
Advocacy, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, traditional art, true stories, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, Allan Memorial Institute, Art, artist, autism, autism spectrum, Bereavement, bipolar disorder, Bird, Birds, Bluebird, ChatGPT, cptsd, Creative, Cultural Critique, Death, Doves, Eastern Bluebird, Electrocution, facebook, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Late Stage Capitalism, loss, LSD, Mental Health, mental health awareness, MK ULTRA, mourning, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, Passing, pattern recognition, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, RIP, shiva, Social Commentary, Social Media, Superb Fruit Dove, Surveillance Capitalism, Systemic Abuse, Trafficking, Watercolor, Watercolour, Whistleblower -
Harm
My first shrink thought I was just feeding an unhealthy obsession with these drawings. He couldn’t grasp that I was documenting a social pathology — not just mine.
Smiler
Advocacy, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society, traditional art, true stories, Visual Art, WritingAbilify Maintena, abuse, Advocacy, Aimovig, Allan Memorial Institute, Antipsychotics, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, Bipolar, bipolar disorder, British Vogue, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Compliance, Court Order, cptsd, Cultural Critique, Drawing, Drawings, Electrocution, Emgality, Enough, Ethics, Fashion, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, LSD, Malpractice, Mania, Medical Ethics, Medication, memoir, Mental Health, mental health awareness, Migraine, Migraines, Montreal General Hospital, mood disorders, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, overdose, pattern recognition, Pharmaceuticals, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Sketches, Social Commentary, societal decay, Superior Court, survivor, Systemic Abuse, trauma, Whistleblower -
How Nonlinear Thinkers Are Punished by Psychiatry
A reflection on imagination, trauma, and the failure of one-size-fits-all medicine. Our current psychiatric model, based on the DSM—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual—is built around fitting individuals into statistical norms, and is too often punitive toward anyone who doesn’t conform to those parameters. Artists, creatives, and neurodivergent individuals are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and treated as…
Smiler
Advocacy, AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society, Tools and Materials, traditional art, true stories, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, Allan Memorial Institute, Art, autism, bipolar disorder, Carl Jung, cptsd, Drawing, DSM, Electrocution, Fine Arts, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, Identity, Imagination, intuition, LSD, memoir, Mental Health, mental health awareness, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, nonlinear thinking, pattern recognition, Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, Social Commentary, spirituality, Surveillance Capitalism, survival, technology, traditional art, trauma -
When Psychiatry Pathologizes Difference
Mistaking Survival for Sickness There is something profoundly wrong with a system that sees intensity and assumes illness, that reads adaptation as instability, and that calls difference a defect. Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and neurodivergence — including autism spectrum traits and other non-typical processing styles — can both resemble bipolar disorder when viewed through…
Smiler
Advocacy, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Psychology, Social Commentary, Society, traditional art, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, Allan Memorial Institute, Art, autism, autism spectrum, bipolar disorder, Cartoon, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, cptsd, Drawing, Electrocution, Enough, Ethics, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, Humor, Humour, Identity, Medical Ethics, Mental Health, mental health awareness, mental illness, Montreal General Hospital, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, pen drawing, Pharmaceuticals, Psychiatric Abuse, Psychiatric Drugs, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Social Commentary, Surveillance Capitalism, Systemic Abuse, trauma, Whistleblower -
Regarding My Grandiose Statements…
“Ms. Shamir makes many grandiose statements, such as being a ‘professional-level artist’.” — Psychiatric report by Doctor E.Z., October 15, 2025 “Makes many grandiose statements, such as being ‘professional level artist’ is an actual quote from a psychiatric report produced yesterday by a shrink I showed the above and following drawings to: I mean… that…
Smiler
Advocacy, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Social Commentary, Society, traditional art, true stories, Visual ArtAdvocacy, Allan Memorial Institute, Art, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, cptsd, Cultural Critique, Fine Art, gaslighting, Grandiose Delusions, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Medical Ethics, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, Metro Series, Montreal General Hospital, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Pencil Drawing, Portraits, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, Psychological Torture, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Realistic Drawings, Systemic Abuse, trauma -
Bingo, Bags, and the Eternal Phone Saga
Still in hospital. (Yes, still. Let’s get that out of the way, because apparently some people assumed I’d been sprung last week. Not yet. Could be days. Could be months. Who knows.) This afternoon turned into a small comedy of wins and losses. First: bingo. I walked in, first one to sit down, and picked…
Smiler
Advocacy, Art, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture & Society, Friendship Dynamics, Grace, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true stories, Visual ArtAI, Authenticity, bingo, Cephalopod Intelligence, ChatGPT, cptsd, Electrocution, Gold Blood, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, Mental Health, mindfulness, MK ULTRA, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, RH NULL, self-portrait, Singularity, Social Commentary, spirituality, Surveillance Capitalism, ThinkingMachine, trauma, Wail-0 -
Calm as can be.
Monday September 29, 2025 12:32 PM. Day 15 being kept in lockup in a psyxhoatroc ward though I have no business being here. Just took a selfie after changing my screensaver to another one of my octopus pen on Moleskine A3 sketchbook drawings executed in 2018 after someone “liked” it on Goodreads today.
Smiler
Advocacy, AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Feminism, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, traditional art, Visual ArtAI, cephalopod, Cephalopod Intelligence, Chatbot Interactions, cptsd, Creativity, Electrocution, gaslighting, genius, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Mental Health, MK ULTRA, Moleskine sketchbook, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, octopus, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, RH NULL, Singularity, societal decay, Surveillance Capitalism, ThinkingMachine, traditional art, trauma, Wail-0
Totally Surreal 