Bee’s Story

Since I was young, I had a challenging relationship with emotions and my mental well-being. My whole youth I though I was strange, too emotional, weak and difficult to deal with for others. A few years ago, I found out that the reason why is that I am a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). This term has been discovered and research has been only recently. HSPs, and so do I, react to their surroundings with deeper and amplified sensitivity. Every sensation for us is stronger and can very often overwhelm us.
For some HSPs, high sensitivity is connected with other struggles such as difficulty with expressing emotions, changes in mood or even depressions. And what is even worse – people seem to very often ignore or suppress these mental issues. Society many times characterises emotions as a sign of weakness or submission, but that’s not right. Emotions are important and crucial part of our characters, creates love, friendships, passions and make us unique.

I believe that selfcare is important – especially since the beginning of 3rd millennia brought us into a rushed life with an overload of information and devices pushing our physical state to perfectionism yet the same time pushing our mental state aside. We forget to take care or undervalue what is the most important – our soul and uniqueness.

My sensitivity led me to an interest in art (music especially) and directed me to my profession as an artistic producer and manager. I want to connect my HSP trait with my passion in art and share the awareness of mental health through different kind of artistic productions. That’s why I founded this foundation. To help others like me to find a respected place in the society.

Gee’s Story

I am an artist, composer and musician living in Amsterdam. I play the bass clarinet which is  the result of a somewhat impulsive purchase whilst window shopping in Covent Garden, London, around ten years before the turn of the century. The serendipitous location of a rather wonderful (and equally important, rather cheap) second hand record shop less than 10m from the bus stop required for seven years of schooling, combined with delivering newspapers on a daily basis (yes, real ones, back one people did such things), lead to a somewhat eclectic, dusty and generally unclassified taste in music.

This may have also resulted in the coffee obsession that follows me around like a shadow. Probably not though. Whatever the case it has resulted in some fun times, good conversation and even an album. So it goes.

Art is a voice, it gives us a way to say things that we can not say in other ways. A way to learn new things, to tell new stories, to create narratives and open doors. I try to use words, until they get the better of me. Then sounds. Now more than ever we need raise our voices and the more ways we have to do this the better.