Sophie Valeix
Discovering Permission to Play - A Mixed Media Collage Journey
"I realized in this moment that this playful thing was 'allowed' to me as an adult (it blew my mind!) and that I'd never had stopped."
Sometimes the most profound artistic revelations come from the simplest moments. For this month's featured artist, that moment happened in 2013 at Brighton Festival, watching an exhibition that would fundamentally change how she saw art—and herself.
When Play Becomes Permission
Standing in that gallery, surrounded by collages made from paper and scissors, something clicked. Here was "art" created with the same materials she'd used as a child, the same playful cutting and arranging that felt natural and joyful. But more than that—it was allowed. It was celebrated. It was enough.
"I realized that I'd never had to stop," she reflects, and in that recognition lies something beautiful about neurodivergent creativity: sometimes we need explicit permission to embrace what our brains naturally want to do.
What started as pure collage evolved over the years to include acrylic paint, creating mixed media pieces that combine the tactile satisfaction of paper manipulation with the fluid expression of color. It's a combination that perfectly suits a mind that craves both structure and spontaneity.
The Art of Following Intuition
Her creative process defies the traditional planning-focused approach many artists swear by. Instead, it's about listening—to the paper, to the colors, to what wants to emerge.
"Learning to follow the paper and the colours and what they tell me has been a great learning for my life in general, as a control freak!" she laughs. It's a sentiment many neurodivergent people can relate to: the constant tension between wanting control and needing to honor our natural rhythms.
Those rhythms don't follow a neat schedule. She's learned to accept that creativity comes in waves—sometimes nothing for months, then five collages in two weeks. And that's not just okay, it's perfect. It's how her brain works, how her art wants to emerge.
Faces, Always Faces
Ask her about recurring themes in her work, and she'll tell you about her persistent return to faces and heads, despite multiple attempts to branch out. "I tried so many times to collage other things than faces or heads but I always come back to it."
But knowing she's neurodivergent gave her permission to stop fighting this tendency. "It gave me permission to make weird things and to like them. It also gave me permission to keep doing what I feel like doing and not try too hard to make art for others."
This is the gift of neurodivergent self-acceptance: the ability to honor our natural inclinations instead of constantly trying to conform to external expectations.
Art as Mirror and Medicine
When she looks at her pieces, she sees herself "much clearer than when looking in the mirror, perhaps because it allows me to see myself without judgement, or to see parts of myself I try to hide in daily life."
This relationship between art and self-discovery is particularly powerful for neurodivergent creators. Her art has given her "personality (including my neurodivergence) colour and shape... it has given my neuroweirdness the life it deserves."
The practice serves multiple functions: meditation when overwhelmed by academic thinking, visual stimulation in a computer-dominated world, and a productive outlet for an ADHD brain that struggles with doing nothing. It's honest about the complex motivations behind creativity—not all positive, but all valid.
Creating Without Expectation
Her most recent piece, which she describes with particular pride, was created "without any expectation, as I was focusing on doing art with a friend and we were talking the entire time. This is the piece I probably did the least overthinking over so that really surprised me that I liked it at the end."
There's wisdom here for all creators: sometimes our best work emerges when we're not trying so hard, when we're present with the process rather than fixated on the outcome.
The Healing Power of Collage
She's shared this gift through workshops with PhD students, helping them "collage their PhD"—a beautiful way to process complex academic journeys through tactile creativity. Her vision extends beyond academia: "99.999% of the time people like what they've done or at least surprise themselves."
The beauty of collage, she notes, is its accessibility. "If the only goal is to create something unique that did not exist a minute ago and which now does, that's easy, right? That could be very healing in general."
Permission to Create
Her story offers a powerful reminder: art doesn't have to be complicated or "serious" to be meaningful. Sometimes the most profound creative acts come from giving ourselves permission to play, to follow our instincts, to make "weird things" and like them.
For anyone who thinks they aren't "good enough" to make art, her journey suggests a different question: What if the goal isn't to be good enough for others, but to create something that didn't exist a minute ago and now does?
What if that's not just easy—what if that's enough?
Social links:
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophvaleix/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophie.valeix
If you're interested in being featured as a monthly artist, or if you know someone whose creative journey might inspire others, reach out to us. Every story of neurodivergent or disabled creativity matters, whether you're a seasoned professional or someone who just discovered their artistic voice.
Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for visuals and bite-sized insights from this piece and others.
Sign up here to receive our newsletter and stay connected!
About the Author
Gal is an autistic artist, late-diagnosed at 49, and the creator of AuRTistic Expressions—a space where neurodivergent truth meets creative survival. Through blog posts, printables, courses, and the “This Might Get Messy” podcast, Gal explores what it means to unmask safely, communicate authentically, and make art that doesn’t ask for permission. Stick around—there’s plenty more where this came from.
AI generated bio
Cover Photo: Sophie Valiex
