I Am What I Am: A Mural in North Gosforth

🎨 I Am What I Am — A Mural in North Gosforth, Newcastle Upon Tyne written by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

By Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

There are places where art is expected — where walls are permitted to breathe, where colour is welcomed, and creativity feels like a shared language.

And then, there is North Gosforth. A quiet suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne.
 Here, everything is tidy, predictable, and a little suspicious of difference.

This past week, I painted my garage door.
 Not for attention. Not for praise.
 But because my imagination needed space — even if the world around me didn’t.

A Window into Another Place

The mural is a solitary figure, seated and thoughtful, gazing out over a deep, dreamlike sea. The sky above is bruised with twilight blues, scattered with birds and illuminated by a watchful moon. The painting, done in acrylics and protected with varnish, is both an escape and a declaration.

It is titled “I Am What I Am” . Because, truly — I am.

An Artist in Uninviting Soil

I came to the North East from places where art is not only accepted but celebrated. In Bristol, for instance, murals aren’t vandalism — they’re landmarks. They tell stories. They belong.

But in North Gosforth, expression feels like intrusion.

When I placed a modest garden installation outside my home — a gentle act of creative intent — my neighbour promptly built a fence. No words, no curiosity, just a barrier. A visual “no thank you.”

It was disheartening. But it was also clarifying.

I realised I would not diminish myself to fit in.
 If art is unwelcome here, then perhaps it is more necessary than ever.

The Mural

• Title: I Am What I Am
• Medium: Acrylic on metal garage door
• Finish: Varnished for protection
• Signature: Laura Bernardeschi Nelson
• Location: North Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne

It may be the only mural for miles around — a splash of rebellion on a row of polite, grey doors. But that’s what gives it life.

Why This Matters ?

This work is not about confrontation.
 It’s about breathing colour into a muted place.
 It’s about allowing the inner world to spill outward, even if it clashes with the neighbours’ hedges.

Art doesn’t need permission. It needs presence.

So I give mine — boldly, unapologetically.

Coming Soon on Saatchi Art

http://www.saatchiart.com/lauraartist68

I will be uploading I Am What I Am to Saatchi Art not as part of my public portfolio. Not necessarily for sale — but as a marker of this moment. A way to say: this happened here. And this is who I am.

Final Words

To some, it’s just a painted door.
To me, it’s a declaration. A conversation. A refusal to disappear.

So let the fences rise. Let the silence fall.
Still, I will paint.

Because I am an artist.
Because I am still here.

Because I am what I am.

About the Artist

Laura Bernardeschi Nelson is an Italian-born, UK-based visual artist whose work spans painting, installation, and public art. With roots in Tuscany and a creative soul shaped by Bristol’s vibrant street art culture, Laura brings a poetic, emotive vision to both urban and domestic spaces. Her practice explores solitude, displacement, defiance, and the silent beauty of resistance through colour and form.

Now living in North Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Laura continues to create against the grain, transforming ordinary surfaces — from garden walls to garage doors — into portals of imagination and quiet rebellion.

Her recent mural, “I Am What I Am,” is a personal statement on identity and artistic integrity in a place where art is seldom invited but always needed.

Website : www.lauraartist68.uk

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/lauranelsonartist68