The Magic Forest... the first acorns are in the ground.

The Magic Forest and the nature of wellbeing.

A simple visual system of wellbeing for the modern world.
This system has been developed by Si Homfray.

So the Magic Forest is now finally underway. The first work is out there as a T Shirt and the art for the seven main areas is about to be launched. 10 years on and my enthusiasm for this project remains completely undimmed.

"After half a lifetime of searching for a single answer to life’s challenges, Si Homfray found clarity after a motorbike accident changed the course of his life. Now he is hoping to help others to achieve wellbeing in a conflicted and complicated world through his new artistic project."

A big challenge

As a young man, I always found life really, really confusing and I felt lost.

I always wanted a structure to understand what it was all about. I think you could call it an existential crisis from a young age.

I did a lot of running and climbing, which helped me keep a sort of balance but it didn’t give me any answers. I knew climbing was good for me, but I didn’t know why.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, I read a lot of self-help books – which were giving dogmatic, overly prescriptive advice, much of it conflicting. I read several psychotherapy texts but nothing gave me a simple structure that made any sense to work to.

I couldn’t find a really simple structure that looked at mental health and physical health together or a system I could work with every day that really dealt with both areas equally.

My travels allowed me to do some deep soul searching, with some occasional hard core self deprecating existential philosophy. I learned to like myself then, but it wasn’t until may years later, perhaps only then seeing the wood for the trees of the forest, that I realised that the solution to finding a structure for understanding all round wellbeing was truly multi-faceted and that all the areas overlapped in a very joined up way, this was the real challenge graphically for me.

There isn’t one answer to achieve wellbeing – it’s not simply about your health, your fitness and your relationships. It’s about many aspects of life. I have kept asking what are they?

There is plenty of advice out there, but nothing really seemed comprehensive and nearly all of it seemed conflicted.

I takes time, and it's very much a together process

My graphic artistic journey started back 10 years ago, as part of my application to do an MA in Graphic Art at the Royal College of Art. Such a high bar demanded a high degree of obsessive detail, a big step back and reworking of my beliefs and perception of the world. It also needed a really strong clear look at all the issues surrounding this challenge. With all this heavyweight mental pressure briefed into my mind I started to examine ideas and words one at a time for next few years.

Time passed by quickly as I set up the new business, found my own personal confidence and rebuilt my personal view of the world with a much stronger sense of being part of the whole world than before.

It is only recently, over the last four or five years, that these ideas, concepts and visual works have crystalised and I am really proud to say I seemed to have finally worked out my own system, the magic forest, a simple committed structure with some clearly important key points that apply to the human condition on what’s really important.

Hopefully as it unfolds publicly in new art works and new products developed from this structured plan it will deliver some of these insights in a warm and engaging way. I would love for people to identify with something relevant for themselves through these works, and if I do the work to my best, hopefully it will all seem quite straightforward and clear to understand.

Then when we have all achieved this together through artwork, feedback and conversation, I can finish and publish a book which in the spirit of the project will could possibly deliver some of the magic as a special aha moment?  I hope! A big ask!

Meanwhile, thank you for your patience with me and may I ask that if you have time or inclination you can feedback and visit me to discuss any aspects that may tickle your interest?

Kindest as ever,

Si
:  )