I go by Vela and/or potatge. She/her. 30s. Straight. Solo mum. Living in Adelaide, Australia.

I have had a rough life for over half a decade. I have be instititonalized for mental illness numerous times, because I was traumatised after having witnessed a death. I was hurting, mind you.

But people aren't very understanding of mental illness, in fact, people are quite cruel. The reason mental illness was hardest for me was because it impaired my drawing skills.

I had always been obsessed with drawing, but following psychosis I couldn't draw well anymore.

All the doctors said it was a mystery, and said I was well and OK. But I was hurting beyond belief. It was torture

I have had to crawl my way back to a somewhat normal life, and FUCK it has been hard as FUCK.

I tried many different hobbies in attempts to heal from having my art skills ruined by mental illness. I tried game dev in particular, RenPy, which offered a welcome reprieve from the hopelessness I had been feeling regarding my art.

But in the end, I longed to heal over my sense of inadequacy I felt around art, and instead return to drawing. To feel at peace with my work. For that, I would give the world!

I'll write more on this later when I have more time, but everything changed when I started my webcomic. Almost as if, the moment I started it was the moment I made my life change for the better.

Right on NYE 2025, I started a webcomic called Lost My Boots Out Wandering, but I plan to take my time with LMBOW, and work on it for a long time. For years, actually. That is my goal.

LMBOW gave me the strength to believe in myself again. The joy of drawing came back, as I realised, I belong as an artist.

I am not a freak, but someone who belongs.

(Will write something better later)