About Me

This is not the traditional “about me” page where I summarise my achievements…. I learn more from stumbles and grazed knees and am more inclined to share stories of defeat. In any case, this site isn’t about my professional history but rather my expressive future. It’s a journal of my creative journey as an adventurer and as the narrative and visual artist in me that I have been embracing in recent years with great gusto.

I’ve always made my living through words, but much of the writing I have been doing since moving to Cyprus in 2019 has been for me, not for clients. I wrote a play, inspired by the many philosophical discussions I enjoyed at an eclectic jazz bar soon after moving to the seaside town of Larnaca; wrote a short film about desire and disclosure, prompted by a friend and film-maker who believes, as I do, in the power of creative collaboration; and wrote and recited dozens of poems, inspired by everyone and everything. I’ve also been painting again, after twenty years of near abstinence, and it has been fabulously freeing and fascinating. Acting and dancing have also featured heavily in my time and energy on the island. I have coproduced and performed in a staged exploration of displacement, acted in a slapstick that raised money for charity and acted in a filmed-on-phone rendition of Fo’s A Woman Alone.

This site was initiated in the quiet days of COVID-19 solitary solidarity as a space for me to practice the art of accepting criticism and compliments. My fear of these prevented me from embracing my inner artist for two decades. Now that I’ve found her, nurtured her, and been loved by her, I won’t let that happen again. Fear be damned. I am of the free.

The name of this site is inspired by the fact that my name, Reem, means gazelle in Arabic.