‘Tangled and Calm’ Print

‘Tangled and Calm’ is what an overstimulated brain looks like to me. The thick band of tangled, deep teal in the center is the noise — thoughts looping, sensory input crossing over, everything happening at once. It’s messy and urgent and won’t untangle itself. Above and below it is space I am always looking for. The quiet. The regulation. I try to hold between the chaos and the calm.

Making this was about giving myself permission for both parts to exist. Neurodivergent minds don’t get to just be calm or just be busy — we carry both. The texture is important here. You can feel the build-up in the teal, like pressure. And you can feel the smoothness in the gaps like relief. It’s a reminder that the tangled bits aren’t bad, and the quiet bits aren’t lazy. They’re both part of how I move through the world. One doesn’t cancel out the other.