Journal

When Helen Downie (b.1965), who goes by the artist name Unskilled Worker, picked up her pencil and paintbrush after over thirty years of absence, she did not expect anything to come of it. Now, five years later, she has a following on Instagram of 280,000, a successful collaboration with one of the world’s biggest fashion houses, Gucci, and has her artwork shown in exhibitions around the world. Her story sounds like a fairytale, but – like reality – it is much more complex than that. It is a story of love and loss, of addiction and life’s struggles, about trying to keep it together, and listening to an inner calling.