I’m Magda, the founder of Yestem Project. As a neurodivergent artist, I started this project because of the challenges I faced exploring my own creativity.
I love visual art, colorful or monochromatic, abstract or representative – I love pretty much everything. So when I was in my 30s, I thought, let me try. But it wasn’t working at all. At the time, I didn’t know I’m neurodivergent and had never even heard of aphantasia, which means I’m unable to imagine how objects should look when I try to create art.
Possibly some work I did at the time wasn’t bad – abstract landscape, whimsical portrait – but I only did them once, because it just didn’t feel right. At the same time I wanted to keep creating. The struggle was real, and with it came the question: what is wrong with me?
I didn’t even realize at the time that I’m heavily into patterns, and everything in my work has to be very precise to feel like me.
Then, during covid, I started experimenting with a digital approach. It was slow – I first started in Picsart on an Android tablet, and only after a few years did I try iPad. It wasn’t smooth sailing, but finally I feel like I’ve found my creative voice. I now create pattern and geometric shapes visuals that truly feel like me.
Geometric shapes are easy, but due to aphantasia I can’t draw a pattern (other than possibly polka dot). However, I found out how to create them by processing shapes.
The thought that I create something that expresses me is such a confidence booster and I’d like to give the same experience to others.
Yestem Project 