On Display: Head Full Of... *MH🧠
Last week, we gave our minds permission to wander, explore and have some fun with whatever might be in there.
We wondered what might happen when thoughts, ideas, favourite things and a few completely random things were given the freedom to find their way into our art.
As we said at the beginning, a Head Full Of… can contain almost anything — and our artists certainly took that idea in their own individual directions!
Freedom of the mind, with a twist of imagination, turned out to be a wonderful recipe for a head full of pure personality. ✨
So, what emerged when we opened up our minds and got creative? Let's take a look…
Barbara – Put a huge amount of thought and preparation into her Head Full Of... collage, spending several days gathering, resizing and cutting out images representing the many things that occupy her mind. Art and creativity sit alongside her cat Mango, bluebells and sunflowers, music and Suzi Quatro, yoga, fabulous goth boots and memories of her own PVC catsuit. There are more personal elements too, including agoraphobia and one of Barbara's own artworks featuring a raised fist within a sunflower — a piece representing solidarity between disabled people and challenging power. I remember her creating this during our Growth *MH art session in July 2025. Barbara later used the artwork as part of a campaign she's passionate about, adding the hashtag #WelfareNotWarfare. Everything is layered together and framed with silver glitter washi tape. And, of course, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a vampire makes more than one appearance — and proved to be something of a distraction during Wednesday's session. That made us all smile! 😄
Mixed-media collage
Andy – No surprises about what was filling Andy's head! His love of travel inspired a colourful collection of famous landmarks and places from around the world, all contained within his own head. From the Eiffel Tower to Big Ben, there are plenty of places to explore and perhaps a few ideas for future adventures too.
Oil pastel on paper
Alison – Chose a beautiful nature scene to colour for her Head Full Of…, filling the landscape with greens, blues and the warm yellows and oranges of the changing season. Flowing water winds through the countryside towards distant mountains, with birds flying across the sky. Alison loves birds and told us she'd been working with wood on a bird-related project earlier that day, so it was lovely to see them make an appearance in her artwork too. A wonderfully peaceful place to have inside your head!
Coloured pencil on paper
Noor – Filled her mind with nature, colour, beauty and freedom. A vibrant butterfly floats freely above a sweep of gorgeous yellow flowers, with trees and touches of blue and brown in the distance. There's something wonderfully cheerful about Noor's bold use of colour, and I love the sense of the butterfly being free to go wherever it chooses.
Acrylic paint
Christine – Cats are very close to Christine's heart, and she especially misses her cat, Toby. We often find ourselves chatting about the cats we've loved and missed, so it wasn't surprising to see a beautiful smoky grey cat appearing in her Head Full Of.... Surrounded by pink roses and blue hydrangeas, with butterflies fluttering through the garden, it's a wonderfully bright scene filled with some of Christine's favourite things.
Digital colouring app
Christine – Flowers are another of Christine's favourite things, and this colourful little bird caught her eye. Its body is beautifully filled with bright flowers and leafy foliage, with the petals, leaves and feathers seeming to become part of one another. A lovely combination of colour and nature that clearly appealed to Christine.
Digital colouring app
Matthew – His head is full of music! Matthew drew musical notes inside his head as he imagined writing the score for his very own concert, inspired by his recent trip to a Jazz Festival. We also discovered that his favourite instrument is the saxophone. I love the imagination behind this — a few simple lines tell a whole story about the music playing inside Matthew's mind. I wonder what it would sound like if we could hear it?
Pen on paper
Phil – Phil's head is certainly a busy and colourful place! His collage brings together a whole assortment of people and characters alongside rainbows, nature, art and music, all bursting with colour and pattern. There is so much going on that you notice something different each time you look — a wonderfully lively and colourful interpretation of the theme.
Digital artwork created using the ToonMe app
Donna – There was so much filling Donna's head that her thoughts and feelings couldn't quite stay inside! Instead, they became a collection of brightly coloured balloons floating all around her. Some carry positive feelings and connections, while others reflect the more difficult thoughts that can occupy our minds. A simple but very fitting way of showing just how many different things we can be carrying around at once.
Felt-tip pens on paper
Sarah – In my mind, I live by the coast and in the woods. The great outdoors connects them both — places where I find peace, space to breathe and so much to explore.
There's wildlife to watch, fall in love with and, of course, be tempted to draw! From the tiniest ecosystems hidden amongst the trees and rock pools to huge open landscapes stretching towards the horizon, there's always something to capture my attention.
For this piece, I combined a photograph of myself with a loosely painted landscape, allowing the woodland and coastline to grow around me — the places my mind likes to wander to, even when I can't physically be there.
Apparently, I became so distracted thinking about them that they started dripping onto my forehead too! Or perhaps a little piece of that imagined reality just managed to land… 🤔😉
Photograph and watercolour on paper
And there we have it — a fascinating glimpse into some very different minds!
What I love about this collection is that there was never going to be one answer to Head Full Of…. Our minds can hold the things that bring us joy and comfort alongside worries, everyday thoughts, favourite interests, hopes and dreams.
They can take us somewhere else too. Through imagination and escapism, we can wander off to places we love, places we'd like to be or worlds that exist only in our minds. Memories can take us backwards too — allowing us to revisit people, places and moments that brought us happiness and experience a little of that joy again.
With World Mental Health Day approaching on 10 October, perhaps that's an important part of the conversation. Mental health isn't only about difficult times or the things we struggle with. It's part of all of us — how we think, feel, remember, connect, cope, imagine and experience the world around us.
Sometimes our heads really do feel very full. Making space for the things that bring us joy, allowing ourselves to hope and dream, finding somewhere to escape to in our imagination, and recognising the value of memories that make us smile can all have a place in our wellbeing.
Different minds, different experiences — and whole worlds of memories, hopes, dreams and imagination within them. 🧠🎨✨
Fancy getting creative with us? 🎨
Join us online every Wednesday evening from 7:30–9:00 pm for our art sessions. Everyone is welcome, whatever your experience or ability — come along, get creative, enjoy some friendly company and explore a different topic every week.
We'd love to see you there! ✨ The link is below — select All4Art.
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