Think of it as destiny.

I'm Genevieve - Gen, obviously - founder, artist, facilitator, chief creator of rainbows and general perfectly imperfect human behind Gen + Tonic.

I live in Adelaide, South Australia, and occasionally find myself painting in some wonderful interstate locations. One day, overseas. Putting that here for the universe.

Gen + Tonic was born from a pretty simple realisation: it is my job to make myself feel better.

Not in a pretend-everything-is-fine kind of way. In a notice-what-I-need, find-the-courage, make-the-thing, say-the-thing, feel-the-thing kind of way.

And somewhere along the way, I realised I could help other humans do that too.

What started as a punny business name has become something much bigger. Because the Tonic isn't one particular thing. It isn't just art. It isn't me swooping in to make everybody feel better.

You are your own Tonic.

We all have things available to us that help us reconnect with ourselves, with each other and with what we need. Sometimes we just need a little help finding them.

That's where I come in.

My work takes a few different forms because, apparently, so do I. I paint murals. I create enormous collaborative artworks with hundreds of hands involved. I work with students, schools, workplaces and groups of humans. I facilitate conversations about emotional culture. I create cards, questions and tools to help people put words to things that can be really effing hard to put into words.

Different things, same thread.

Connection. Courage. Colour. Feelings. Humans.

More and more, my work is about helping people connect with how they actually feel - giving them the words, space, colour, questions, tools or permission to notice what's going on inside them and actually talk about it.

Because feelings aren't something we need to fix, shove down or make pretty.

Sometimes we need to name them.

Sometimes we need to sit with them.

Sometimes we need to say them out loud.

And sometimes we need to pick up a paintbrush and make something enormous together.

I still get a kick out of watching what happens when a blank wall becomes something a whole community has had a hand in creating. I see the impact of being a living, working artist - earning her own money and painting things that make her feel good - on little (and not so little) students in schools.

And I am continually blown away by the energetic shift that can happen when you give a bunch of humans some paint, some cards, a good question and permission to be a bit more honest.

So yes, I'm here to inject colour, inspiration, hope, courage and delight into humans big and small.

I'm also here to help humans feel their giant feels, connect with themselves and each other, trust their creative instincts and see what might be possible for them.

Basically, I'm Gen.

You bring the Tonic. I'll help you find it.

When I'm not up a ladder...

...or sitting on the floor surrounded by buckets of paint, I may be found:

• learning all about being a mumma and loving the wild ride

• dreaming up unnecessarily ambitious ideas and then deciding I should probably actually make them

• doodling away on my iPad

• scrolling, downloading and playing with fonts and colour palettes

• talking about feelings. A lot.

• running Emotional Culture workshops

• creating cards and tools that help humans talk about how they feel

• teaching kids to paint murals and trusting their creative instincts

• rewatching television shows for the hundredth time (The Walking Dead, Grace and Frankie, The L Word and One Tree Hill, just to name a few)

• going on adventures with the love of my life, husband and all-around magic baby daddy

• teaching my friends how to change a tyre - you know who you are

• laundry. Why is there always so much effing laundry?