Blogging and writing for me has been a creative expression of my immediate observation of real life, just as Degas did with his painting style. I try to write with the spectators subjective vantage point, and blogging (writing, speaking out, poetry) is the medium I use to express my world. So is this art? When I registered for the Adelaide Fringe, the title that partly inspired me to do it was Word Artist. I had not thought of myself as a word artist, barely even as a writer back then, but it feels like writing is art to me now. Degas focused on ballerinas, horse races and women at their toilette; I focus on writings about my life, and dementia, and thinking. The medium is different, but perhaps the intent is the same? I want my writings to recognise life in an exact way, to dissect and acknowledge it authentically, and to review worlds that most others will not; to investigate, to share, to ponder deeply the workings of my brain, and of the world around me. We visited the Art Gallery (Albertina) in Vienna, something we both love doing and we were fortunate enough to be able to see an Impressionist Exhibition featuring original works by people like Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet and Picasso. Not major works, but it was awesome, and inspiring, and utterly thought provoking just the same. On the wall of the section with paintings by Jean-Lois Forain, it said, “with unrelenting perspicacity, he held up a mirror to a complacent society and exposed its innermost weaknesses.” I hope in some way my blog and writings do that, especially when it talks about dementia. If those of us with dementia don’t speak out, how will those of you without dementia really know what it is like?