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The Crooked Bard, Kaiapoi (2026)

07/07/2026

Mānawatia a Mātāriki! Just wanted to wish you all a happy Māori new year with this print of Mātāriki and Ruru that I did a year ago. 💜

Just a smol proof of life from me too. 😅 I still have some prints of this one too if you're interested!

Ngā mihi nui,

Dall

23/05/2026

I did something a bit different today, that I've never done since high school, yes that long ago. My parents got me a voucher for my birthday. So I got myself in for a "frame it, collage it" workshop. It was really a fun way to spend a Saturday in a really creative environment. It's been a hard week for many of us in Aotearoa this week, cos of this ridiculous government, so I felt like creating something around that. Decided to call it "No terfs on my turf". The guillotine was a surprise find in a magazine though, I did an inner cackle and cut it out straight away. 😆 (most of the collage is from Frankie mags, I forgot how fun those are!)

Kinda got ideas of maybe using my linocut misprints or spares in collages... Hrm, maybe!

Thanks Sarah for a wonderful day! I had a lot of fun doing this. I'll definitely be back! 💜

Dall

10/05/2026

Just a lil bit of life lately, for the old algo. Mostly food, as usual. 😅

1. I love how I get pizza so perfectly round.
2. The sky one day, the patterns reminded me of ripples in the sand at the beach.
3. Same sky that day.
4. I finally found my fudgy gingerbread pudding recipe so made it for dessert, with whipped cream.
5. My birthday cake made by a friend - .licious.cakes
6. Lemon curd and vanilla. SO SO GOOD.
7. Crackers with blue cheese and feijoa jelly that I'd made.
8. Sunrise at the bus stop on the way to work.
9. Had a pile of red onions from the food rescue, so I caramelised them with hot (dried chilli flakes) honey I'd mixed up a while ago.
10. And then it became caramelised onion and cheese foccacia. So good.

Hope you're all keeping well! 💜

Dall

04/05/2026

It's NZSL Wiki! 🙌

Not only is it NZSL Week, it is also the 20th year since Aotearoa spoke (signed?!) up and made NZSL one of our two unique official languages.

This print is one of my most recent ones, with the kupu Tūrangawaewae in gold ink, and the sign for "belong" in black ink on a4 hosho paper. This is still available if you're interested in one of your own! Essentially, Tūrangawaewae carries a lot of meaning for many, especially for turi Māori and other Deaf people, who struggle to find their place in two (or more) worlds, to find their belonging, their language, and others who communicate the same.

The hearing world needs to do better, to be more accessible and inclusive. It's not solely just providing nzsl interpreters and captions, it is many things, of which being able to sign is one. Here are a couple of resources to get you started if you've been wondering when it's time to. That time is now, on the twentieth anniversary! The NZSL dictionary is an amazing resource, and can be downloaded as an app too, it provides both the illustrations and videos. Another is https://www.nzslshare.nz/ which is community based and facilitated by the Deaf community, the signs are expanded via this resource, especially with the differences and contexts of each sign. It's absolutely amazing, so definitely a must check out!

Happy NZSL Week. 🤟

Dall

16/04/2026

Apparently today is World Semicolon Day. I didn't know there was one, until today! So, here is mine. Tūmanako means hope, aspirations and in the context of resilience. I got this in 2019, a few months after my MH breakdown, and it was also my first tattoo, at the grand old age of 39. 😅

The semicolon tattoo can feel clichéd now, but it still holds a lot of meaning. It's an interruption in a story, your story, but it is a softer break than a full stop. It's the judder bar, a sidebar, or a side quest. And often it's nice to have a permanent semicolon on your skin as a representation of that in your journey, as a reminder of what was but also of how far you've come. 💜

Dall

10/04/2026

"The Secret to a Good Chicken Gravy" - a print to honour my friend, and long time neighbour, Sally. She died in the early hours a week ago, after a courageous nearly two year battle with cancer. Sally was a larger than life personality, everybody loved her. She loved as equally, especially her whānau. Sally also loved her rescue pets, who were often frequent visitors to neighbours' homes, often with Sally coming in after to say hi. She and her whānau, and the animals were a big part of my street.

This print is a simple one, slightly out of registration (cos I kinda suck at that, haha), but it reminds me of her. I wanted to honour her in some way. Like me, she has several fruit trees on her property, and we would often do swaps of fresh fruit (my cherries were her fav). She also had a crabapple tree. She would make crabapple jelly most years and give us a jar or two. Once, she said "the secret ingredient to a good chicken gravy" was crabapple jelly. And you know what? She wasn't wrong. Never was. It really is the secret addition to turn a boring and oftentimes bland gravy into an amazing roast chicken gravy.

This print isn't for sale as it's personal to me. RIL Sally, we all will miss you.

Ngā mihi nui 🤟
Dall

Image description; it is a photo of off white paper with a print in the center of it. The print is in black outline of six small red crabapple fruit, a red filled jar with a red lid slightly behind the fruit. The hand written title below the print says "The secret ingredient to a good chicken gravy".

06/04/2026

Spent this Easter Monday (is it Monday?! Oh, yes, it is) morning signing, spraying and packaging up the "Tūrangawaewae - Belonging" prints, ready for their new wharepuni. They are $30 each, including postage, cos *gestures to everything*.

This print is to celebrate 20 years of NZSL since it was inducted as one of our two unique official languages, of Aotearoa.

Image description; it is a photo of an assortment of objects, on a dark wood piano stool with a green cutting mat underneath the objects. On the left hand side are brown card with clear cellophane sleeves behind the stack of card. In the middle of the image is off white paper with gold inked words that say "Tūrangawaewae" in descending order, with an outline of two hands, the pointing fingers and thumbs linked, the other hands splayed out, to sign "belong" in new Zealand sign language. There is also a black pencil resting on the side of the print. Next to the print, on the right hand side of the image is a blue aerosol can and it has the words "Matt Spray" in block letters on the can.

Ngā mihi nui 🤟

Dall

P.S - a little side note, I've been making more of an effort to include image descriptions with my posts on here this year, for those who use audio descriptions. I'm not using AI or any form of help with writing them, but if there is anything I can improve on, please do let me know. 💜

31/03/2026

Introducing my new print - "Tūrangawaewae - Belonging". This coming May, it will be 20 years since New Zealand Sign Language was established as one of two official languages of Aotearoa, the other being te reo Māori. For many Deaf people, sign language not only enables language and communication development, but also helps one to feel that they belong to a community. Especially as many live in between two worlds, the deaf and the hearing worlds. Approximately only 5-10% of Deaf children are born to Deaf adults, the majority of Deaf people are born into hearing families, like myself. When families do not learn a new language to encourage the development of their children, the children are at a much higher risk of language deprivation syndrome, which further delays their learning in the future. It is important for Deaf children to learn sign language for so many reasons, of which far outweigh any cons (pretty sure there's no cons!).

In turn, for many tāngata turi (Deaf Māori), this also adds a further layer to being Deaf, being a part of a culture that predominantly uses an oral language interspersed with cultural dance and waiata. For decades, tāngata turi were left out of te ao Māori as a whole due to the language barriers and inaccessibility. While there is no specific wholly te reo Māori sign language, it is a big part of NZ sign language. This print shows the interchangeable version of the two languages, the sign for "belong" which can be used for other kupu such as belonging, connection. Other visual gestural signs such as home/house, stand, can also be used for the kupu Tūrangawaewae. Within this context, I'm using the sign for belong. Because, as a Deaf person myself, I know what it is like to be isolated, to be left out of many environments, and to struggle to find a community or find your footing in a society that still considers disabled people worthless. Especially when you already are a part of several communities, and yet having to live in a world that is shaped for hearing and abled humans.

This print is in A4 size with gold ink, on Japanese hosho paper. As ko-fi is not available anymore, please do PM me if you are interested in purchasing. 💜

18/03/2026

And now for the second print of 2026. This is "Q***r", the sign for q***r in New Zealand Sign Language, on a4 Japanese hosho paper.

Image description; on off white Japanese paper are black hands, one with the pointing finger of the left hand pointing up, the right hand showing four fingers with the thumb tucked behind above it. The right hand proceeds over to the other side with an arrow showing the direction, ending in the same hand downwards with four fingers pointing upwards. This signifies the rainbow, an enduring symbol for q***r communities.

Within q***r communities, as inclusive as they strive to be, there are occasions in which Deaf and disabled humans can be left out, or isolated, due to barriers such as accessibility. It is also a part of the intersectional fabric that makes up a person and their identity, not just their gender or sexual orientation. This print has been bouncing around inside my head for months, so it was also about time that I did it! This year also celebrates the 20th year that NZSL became one of our two official and unique Indigenous languages. So, I want to celebrate our identities as Deaf people within the different communities and environments we may be in. I have a couple more prints like this planned too, to commemorate the occasion. :)

As mentioned earlier, ko-fi isn't available anymore, but please do PM me if you are interested in purchasing a print of your own!

Thanks for the support. 🤟

Dall

The Crooked Bard

07/07/2026

23/05/2026

10/05/2026

04/05/2026

16/04/2026

10/04/2026

06/04/2026

31/03/2026

18/03/2026

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