Quinn
Barclay
Mosaner
I'm Quinn — Artist, stylist, PSYCH-K® practitioner, Red Tent facilitator, sales consultant, writer, people-watcher, thrifter, word nerd and scrabble enthusiast.
I’m also someone who has spent a significant portion of her life figuring out which parts of herself were actually hers.
That's not a poetic way of saying I went on a journey. I mean it literally. There was a period where I had to sit with the uncomfortable reality that much of what I believed about myself — what I wanted, what I valued, how I related to people, what I thought I deserved — had been shaped by experiences and relationships I hadn't chosen and hadn't examined. I had to take it all apart. Slowly. Honestly. Often in the dark.
What came out the other side wasn't a better version of who I was before. It was something closer to an original version. Authentic. Still being discovered. Still evolving. But genuinely mine.
Unapologetically expressive.
"The most disorienting thing I ever did was stop assuming I knew who I was… and start digging through the layers to find what was actually true."
What I knew before I had words for it - Styling is about choice
A thrift store doesn't hand you what's popular. There's no rack curated for you. You have to go through everything, one piece at a time, and actually decide: what do I think of this colour? This cut? Do I like this, or do I just recognise it?
I didn't realise it then, but that process was teaching me something bigger than how to shop. Every time I picked something up and asked do I like this, I was really asking a harder question — how do I want to speak to the world before I've said a word? What am I actually saying right now, and is it still true? Does it resonate?
Fourteen years of asking that question, over and over, in fitting rooms and op shops and my own wardrobe. My style has moved through more phases than I can count. What's stayed constant is the instinct underneath it — using clothing as a form of honest expression, not decoration.
That's not a course I did. It's not a certificate. It's fourteen years of training an eye that most people never get the chance to build — because most people don't have to sort through everything to find the one thing that's actually them.
What is art?
How do you define an artist?
For years, I didn’t see myself as an artist because I didn’t draw or paint or sketch.
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I’ve come to realise, I had my own preconceived ideas of what an artist ‘should’ look like.
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These days, I revel in my various forms of artistry and embrace the title of artist.
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If my creations resonate, delightful. The joy is in the process, sharing in any form is simply a bonus.
Quinn ~ A chosen name for a human that actively chooses her life.
A woman who has done the work to feel so comfortable in her own skin that the authenticity of it is magnetic.
the rest of it ~
— Red Tent Aotearoa — I participate and facilitate spaces for women to gather, speak honestly, and be witnessed without agenda. That work comes from the same place as everything else I do - belief that most of us are carrying more than we need to, and that being genuinely seen is one of the most transformative things available to us.
— I make things — art, objects, writing. Creativity is how I stay connected to something larger than the practical. There's a shop here if something calls to you.
— I'm committed to intentionality as a practice — in fashion/personal style, in language, in how I move through the world. I question the word "should" every time it appears in my own thinking. Where does it come from? Does it belong there? I find that question takes you somewhere interesting almost every time.
— I'm based in Christchurch, New Zealand — though I'm something of a cultural melting pot. Half-Brazilian, raised in NZ — and spent five years in the US somewhere in between all between. I've moved enough times to know that home is less about a place and more about how you inhabit yourself. Wherever you go, there you are.
"I'm not someone who was always inherently grounded or sure of myself. I didn’t get here from a comfortable place. I found it because I needed it. That's the only reason I trust it enough to offer it to you. Whether that be in collage art-form, writing, or styling sessions"
If something here resonated — a word, a feeling, a quiet recognition — I'd love to hear from you!