In 2008, Wall Street crashed. (This is relevant, stay with me) In September 2008, all hope was lost, and the financial crisis reached its summit. This had begun in 2007, slowly, then all at once. Mass unemployment, skyrocketing house prices, and generally a financial world that was now unrecognisable, and one that here in 2026 we can agree has never truly healed.

My entire life I’ve struggled to know what my purpose is. Whenever I imagined my future it was never my career I pictured. I didn’t lie awake at night dreaming about a job title - I was picturing dinner tables, growing old with friends and a house full of people I loved. But the one thing that I was never sure of was what I wanted to spend 90% of my life actually doing.

There is a particularly awful feeling that comes with not being able to do the thing you love in the way you used to.

As I approach yet another February 14th single, and begrudgingly try to write a hinge prompt that carefully balances my intelligence and subtle sense of humour, I find myself reflecting on why I’m finding it so hard to fall in love.

Although you may be unfamiliar with the term ‘photomontage’, you’ve likely come across it, or unknowingly participated in creating one. The term ‘collage’ has a much wider reach — and, though the two art forms are related, photomontage refers to a collage that solely uses images, as opposed to a wider ensemble of mixed materials.

In 1971, feminist art historian Linda Nochlin posed the rather provocative question, ‘Why Have There Been No Great Woman Artists?’. The term ‘Great’ is crucial in both the essay’s title and contents, as Nochlin was not outright denying the existence of women artists, but instead questioning why, in the history of art, women artists hadn’t been hailed as ‘Great’ in much the same way as their male counterparts. Throughout the essay, the term ‘Great’ slides into synonymity with