ETEBT - MADDY REMEDIOS

Finding Art in Everything: The Journey of Maddy Remedios

"Everybody is an artist." It's a bold statement, one that Australian artist Maddy Remedios doesn't just believe—she lives it. But believing it about herself? That's been the harder part.

Last year, Maddy hit what she calls "a really intense creative block." For months, she couldn't bring herself to paint. The brushes sat untouched, the canvases remained blank, and she began questioning whether she was actually an artist at all. It's a crisis familiar to anyone who's ever created something: that voice whispering who are you kidding?

Then came an unexpected breakthrough at a moon workshop. A tarot reading revealed the Seven of Swords, and suddenly everything clicked. "You're not actually bound," the card seemed to say. "You can free yourself at any point." It was exactly what she needed to hear—permission to let go of her own limitations and start creating again, just for herself.

The Art of Letting Go

Maddy has developed what you might call a philosophical immune system. When faced with criticism or judgment, she's learned to pause and remember: "That's their perception, their prejudice, their ego—it's beyond my control." It's a kind of everyday stoicism that she says has brought her more freedom and happiness than she ever imagined.

"Focus on what's within your power and let everything else go," she explains. It sounds simple, but it's taken years of journaling—a practice she's maintained since childhood—to get there. "You need to churn out all the shit in your head," she says with characteristic directness. It's this daily mental housekeeping, combined with reading and reflection, that keeps her thinking clear.

Looking ahead, Maddy's dreams are refreshingly human-scale: traveling, meeting interesting people, expanding her mind. "The work of growing is to be the best version of yourself," she says. She even hopes to be a good parent someday, "to spread more goodness in the world."

Art as Understanding

For Maddy, art isn't confined to galleries or studios. It's everywhere—in the way someone cooks, writes, or even raises children. "Art is a way of understanding the world," she explains. "It lets you look through other people's eyes, see through their lens."

This philosophy shapes her current projects. Take her painted clothes series: she rescues thrifted items destined for landfills and transforms them into something unique. It's art that serves multiple purposes—sustainability, fashion, and creativity rolled into one. Each piece gets "a new life," transforming trash into treasure.

Then there's her hand-drawn tarot deck—all 78 cards, meticulously created with pen and ink. What started as a pressure-free way to work through her creative block has become something deeper. "I draw just for myself," she says, "but then I can share the work and give people guidance in their own lives. It's paying it forward."

The Creative Process, Unfiltered

Maddy's approach to creating is refreshingly unpretentious. She needs the right environment—preferably somewhere quiet like "the bush" where she can "get in the zone, find my flow." Mental state matters too; creativity doesn't flourish when you're struggling.

Her method is all about working "in little bits here and there, without pressure," rather than forcing marathon sessions. She's learned to embrace happy accidents too. When a watercolor piece got an unexpected drip, she didn't panic—she found it "cool to work with elements because they do their own thing."

Perhaps most importantly, she knows when to stop. "A piece is never really finished," she admits, "but part of being an artist is knowing when to restrain yourself, when to let people create their own meaning."

The Ripple Effect

What drives Maddy isn't fame or recognition—it's impact. She wants her art to "make people think and reflect," to help them "view the world in a different way." While she acknowledges that some artists chase fame, she sees that as a deeper need to be understood or seen.

Her inspirations are as varied as her art: her sister, whose own creative awakening reinforced Maddy's belief that everyone has an inner artist; nature, which she calls "the greatest artist after all"; and her Spanish heritage, particularly her grandmother's story as a war orphan from Manila. Maddy is even learning Spanish to connect with these roots, hoping to experience the life her grandmother never could.

Artists like Gaudí and Dalí inspire her with their "surreal, abstract, wacky, and whimsical elements"—qualities that show up in her own work's playful unpredictability.

A Creative Life, Daily

For those looking to unlock their own creativity, Maddy swears by "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, particularly two practices: Morning Pages (three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing every morning) and the Artist Date (a weekly creative outing, whether it's visiting a gallery, taking a walk, or simply painting).

But perhaps her most important advice is simpler: remember that you're already an artist. You just might not have given yourself permission to believe it yet.

Maddy's journey isn't about becoming something she wasn't—it's about accepting something she always was. In a world that often discourages free expression, she's chosen to create anyway, to reflect anyway, to inspire anyway. And in doing so, she's built not just a body of work, but a way of being that invites all of us to do the same.