“All my life I felt like I wasn’t living my true self – I was living a life for others. I had to be the best wife, the best mum, the best daughter, the best me. But the truth was I didn’t know who I was, or if I had ever known me at all.” A late starter when it comes to art, Joanna Gilbert is a recent MAFA graduate from UAL Chelsea College of Arts where she was awarded a distinction for her ‘NOTHING TO BUY’ body of work. It was during her Masters, her divorce and reaching some of the lowest points of her life, she found an invincible strength within her. Joanna has shed her fear of failure, of meeting expectations, of living a lie. She has gained an understanding of life that she wished she had known when she was a teenager. Something quite magical is emerging. Meet the real Joanna Gilbert.