Hi. I’m Petra.

Over the years, I have had approximately five occupations.

1. Corporate Anthropologist

For thirty years I was perfectly at home in the meeting rooms of the world, advising people whose annual income was approximately ten times mine on digital brands, customer psychology and the mysterious behaviour of other people.

I won awards.

I became mildly obsessed with conversion rates.

Corporate adoption goals were presented to me as if they were mountains. I treated them as games and developed a habit of climbing over them.

2. Story Inspector

At some point I decided that I should probably understand everything about movies.

I studied storytelling, character development, narrative structure and the peculiar engineering of things that are supposed to make thousands of people sit in a dark room together and care about someone who does not exist.

I created and sold my own structure grids for screenwriters and authors.

I wrote scripts.

I wrote a book.

I finished them, almost.

3. Cartographer of the Human Psyche

Then I thought it might make sense to study CPTSD, trauma therapy, Jungian psychology, neuroscience and behavioural profiling.

At this point the collection of human operating manuals on my desk was becoming quite substantial.

4. AuDHD Examiner

Eventually I discovered that I had AuDHD.

This explained several things.

It also created several new questions.

I became strangely good at understanding high-functioning autism, ADHD and rejection-sensitive dysphoria.

I don't take medication.

I am, however, remarkably bad at taxes, life administration, long-term planning, remembering where I put things and converting a perfectly ordinary Tuesday into a functioning human existence.

There is apparently no contradiction here.

5. The non-whoo-whoo Tarot by Mme Axis

And then, for reasons that remain unclear, I became extremely good at Therapeutic Jungian Tarot.

I started doing professional Tarot readings.

And Mme Axis arrived.

She appears to know things.

I have not yet determined where she lives.

A long time ago, I asked a friend from Oregon what path I should take in life.

He thought about it.

Then he said:

“Whatever works, man. Whatever works.”

It was excellent advice.

I have been looking for the thing that works ever since.

With AuDHD, the definition of works can become somewhat experimental.

So here we are.

A carousel Atelier is my current hypothesis.

I looked at the spectacular little carousel of a life I had somehow assembled and wondered: What would a place look like where all those unfinished attempts were allowed to exist at once?

Welcome to Atelier Carousel.

It is quite possible we are all a little bit carousel.

Also, being carousel makes me very good at Tarot readings.

If you want one, I’m in the tent.

Mme Axis