This month we tackle mental health within your work. Is creativity the way through and by making work does this help make sense of difficult times? Is creativity a cathartic process and a place to find solace? How is mental health represented within the work? Can it be a serene place to return to or soothe or is it a place holder that acts as a time line on your mental well-being?
We had a bumper number of submissions for this issue and the scope and ways used to tackle this issue was enlightening. Art as therapy, as creative expression and a way to highlight mental health and connect with others. It has been a very moving issue.
Jenna and Nichola.
Artist name: Victoria Shone
Title: Be Yourself
Media
Hand drawn illustration
Description: I made this piece as a direct statement relating to my own mental health, to remind myself that being me is good enough. So often people's mental health suffers from the pressures and expectations of the society we live in. My message is simple; know who you are, be confident in who you are and celebrate what others are too.
Instagram: victoriashoneart
Artist name: Jalen A. Law
Title: Fragmented
Media: Oil on canvas
Description: Fragmented is inspired by conversations I had with former students I worked with who opened up to me about their challenges with depression and suicide. My intention was to create an image that represents their experiences and the being stuck that comes from being in that dark space.
Instagram: Jay_ICCTT
Artist name: Mark Carr
Title: The Scream
Media: Photo-Still from 1 hour performance video
Description: This work concerns the autopsy of a man's mental ill health; specifically my own.
I made the work as a tool to recovery, and as an exposé of mental health issues to the world .
The main obstacle was not in making the work, but finding a suitable place to show/perform it; this has become virtually impossible since COVID 19 emerged.
Instagram: markcarrart
Artist name: Chloe Reynolds
Title: 'Staying Home'
Media: Oil on canvas
Description: This piece was made in reflection of the start of the Pandemic.
I made this piece to process.
Struggling with Bipolar Disorder and lockdown this enabled me to process information and was a coping strategy.
Instagram: @chloereynoldspainting
Artist name: Paul Blenkhorn
Title: You looking' at me #3
Media: Digital
Description: For many years Taxi Driver (1976) was my favourite film. The haunting music, the sense of isolation of Travis Bickle ... It echoed strongly with me at a time when I was living in a bed-sit in Birmingham in the mid 1970s. A similar isolation has been with us recently which resonated with my memories of that time. I am currently fortunate in that I am not isolated or lonely but am acutely aware that very many people are not so fortunate. This is a digital artwork that, in part, uses my neural style transfer system to manipulate images from the film. To me it fits in rather well with the theme of Mental Health.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensoryarthouse
Artist name: Tony Welch
Title: Anxiety III
Media: Plaster & Wood
Description: Anxiety III depicts the mental blocks and behaviours that manifest when an individual lives in a constant state of anticipating negative experiences. The solid block in this piece signifies that state which restricts the individual and the face with eyes firmly closed presents the attempt to reject what is yet unknown.
Instagram: TonyWelchFineArt
Artist name: Tracey Waddington
Title: Let there be light
Media: Acrylic
Description: I had an overwhelming need to find serenity, or create serenity. I wanted also to share this and it has. People describe this work as peaceful. I overcame my own mental health issues in that I went into the studio and then made work. Colossal efforts when a persons mood is low. I sell prints of this work but will not sell it. This work counters opposing work I have made, they juxtapose. In this way I can see turmoil and serenity. This means things change. And so they do.
Instagram: traceyartwaddington
Artist name: Andy Farr
Title: The Puppeteer
Media: Oil
Description: This painting is based on Zara who shared her thoughts and feelings with me via a series of emails during lockdown. It conveys the realisation that her anxiety was not bigger than her. That she was in control – she was the puppeteer – initially a scary thought, but ultimately empowering – and a source of HOPE. Zara and Jess, another participant, are now working on a series of podcasts entitled “Mum’s unscripted” – with the goal of allowing Mum’s to know they are not alone … and that there is no shame attached to their feelings.
Instagram: @andyfarrart
Artist name: Jonathon Beaver
Title: Fluoxetine, 20mg
Media: Aida cloth and cotton
Description: Fluoxetine, 20mg (2018), Aida cloth and cotton, 12” x 10.5”.
This piece is about antidepressant medication and how fragile, unstable and easily the brain can unravel. I made this as I didn't want to hide anymore and break down the stigma. I took this piece to an artist Q and A at Home, in Manchester: I had to overcome being that exposed in a room full of strangers but extremely glad I did it and it opened up conversations afterwards.
Instagram: jonnyxstitch
Artist name: Frances Willoughby
Title: Escaping the Pull
Media: Soft Sculpture
Description: Catastrophic thinking is a behaviour I find myself doing more often than I would like to admit. It is a habit I subconsciously slip into and pull away from, especially now, when there is so much time to contemplate. As the anxiety rises, my insides become entangled, until I recollect my thoughts and reconsider the likelihood of this idea becoming reality.
Instagram: frances.willoughby.art
Artist name: Jeremy Gluck
Title: The Recording of Thinking
Media: Photography
Description: Three lines of text to explain your concept, why you made the piece and any obstacles you had to overcome
Part of a series of photographic works entitled THE RECORDING OF THINKING. The work emerges from an aspiration to create experiential energy art rooted in disclosure and sharing of the self and capture the essence of self-isolation.
My photography responds to the the surrounding environment, and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point.
Instagram: nonceptualism
Artist name: Suzie Pindar - THE NAKED ARTIST
Title: Anxiety
Media: Digital Photography
Description: I made this piece of work as I found lockdown challenging being a keyworker and going to work when others were at home. My anxiety was very high daily and I needed to create an outlet to let go of my anxiety in a creative way. The photograph personally portrays how my head felt within such a mental state.
Instagram: suziepindar
Artist name: Louise Mortimer
Title: Grey
Media: Pencil on card
Description: Nothing is as grey as depression. I have never felt as isolated, immobile or alone
Every movement required to be, to be a partner, to be a mother to be bothered required immense, exhausting effort
For the first time I drew my depression. It released a bravery within my work that I have never looked back from.
Instagram: fiercefineartist
Artist name: Huda Hafeez
Title: Welcoming Dark
Media: Fabric and paints on sheet
Description: I painted because I was unable to say
So I just not merely painted, I use my art materials as a key to find lost pieces of my soul. I put together parts of my brain, pieces of my flesh that were dissolving in the dark to the extent of numbing all the emotions and juxtapose them in a process of transforming the threatning and consuming darkness into calming solitude leaving it to others to hear what left burried in the unspoken words.
Instagram: @hudaa_hafeez
Artist name: Isabella Fox
Title: 'Big Jumper'
Media: Oil on Canvas
Description: I am troubled with issues surrounding my mental health and painted the jumper to look heavy as if it's weighing me down. Burdened. The flatness of the background contrasts with the realism of the face. The setting is not real, abstracted, suggesting that my body dysmorphia is the work of my mind.
The expression is not overly happy or sad, just stuck, uncomfortable. Which reflects my state of mind, trapped under the burden of dysmorphia.
Instagram@ @isabellafoxart
Artist name: Laura Charlotte Bates
Title: Isolation drink
Media : Photography, glass, kiln work, T-shirt soaked in red wine
Description: During the first 3 months of lockdown alcohol sales raised by a shocking 67% My piece depicts the mental isolation felt by many as well as the physical. Alcohol has helped many with coping with these difficult times but has left an ever lasting effect on our mental health. The beach, more importantly the sand is a reminder of time. Time slowing down for us all and the uncertainly of how much we have got left. Overcoming loneliness during lockdown while steering clear of alcohol has been my greatest battle.
Instagram: artist_laura_charlotte_bates
Artist name: John Anthony Forno
Title: People Who Need People Are The Luckiest People In The World/ Use Under Adult Supervision.
Media: Wood, Children's Floaties and Spraypaint.
Description: This free-standing sculpture, while static, documents temporal growth from a point in my life where the precursor was a lengthy period of darkness and isolation, followed by a cumulative lifting of the spirit. Utilising notions of play, childhood toys, colour theory, psychodynamics and systems theories of external relationships, I explore the unassailable impact of negative core beliefs - real or perceived - on self-actualization; and the importance of family, friends and fellowship in carrying me when I am unable to generate my own momentum.
Instagram: john_anthony_forno
Artist name: Zohra naim
Title: immortality
Media: Acrylics on canvas
Description: this piece was created after a very hard period struggling to mannage emotions
not being able to express my self , having panic attacks due to social anxiety
when i saw my art supplies it reminded me of the relief that practicing art brings to my heart
Instagram: her.immortal.majesty
Artist name: Sharleene Olivier
Title: Counting Sheep
Media: textiles
Description: I go through bouts of insomnia. It is terrible as it leaves one exhausted on many levels: physically, emotionally, mentally. I try various calming techniques which seem to help, such as meditation. But if I am worried or stressed nothing works and I do not want to take medication for insomnia.
Instagram: sharleeneolivier
Artist name: Victoria Rebekah
Title: The Primary Colours of Mental Health
Media: Mixed Media - Gouache and pencil
Description: A triptych of the primary colours: Blue, Yellow and Red. Each representing a mental illness. Blue for depression, red for anxiety and yellow for phobias. As an individual, I suffer from all three, and I wanted to express how individuals living with a mental health condition may appear black and white from the outside, and therefore ignored. But inside our minds - it is an explosion.
Instagram: victoriasartstudio
Artist name: S.G.Owen
Title: PMDD and Me
Media: Pen and acrylic on paper
Description: This is a drawing of my struggles with various issues, mostly PMDD, a hormonal condition that causes massive mood fluctuations. I just tried to convey the frustrations of it all and yet it also makes me 'me'. I don't often share my mental health struggles with people as it's so misunderstood and I don't want folk to treat me differently.
Instagram: S.G.Owen
Artist name
Stephen McGowan
Title: The Grief Machine
Media: Mixed media combining painting and sculpture on photo-printed canvas.
Description: The piece is about the long process of grief, about how grief is almost a 'haunting' - not by the person gone but of the emptiness of what remains. And about exploring how complex emotions can lead to a shift in terms of character, identity and direction.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/afterbeforebysjp
Artist name: Matthew R Terry
Title: The Mental Landscape
Media: Experimental photography
Description: Part of a series of work born out of an error during a film soup experiment, The Mental Landscape is a cathartic exercise in reframing and repurposing previously unwanted results, forming something new out of the undesirable. Here, failure is conceptualised as an unknown and unfamiliar terrain and explores feelings of being lost or adrift in said headspace with no direction or guidance. Through cropping and framing, topographical map-like imagery was created that serves to navigate oneself out of the landscape, mirroring the cathartic process of repurposing, reframing, and moving on from failure.
Instagram: @terry_vision
Artist name: Gaizka Saracibar
Title: The unbearable lightness of being a man #9
Media: Digital
Description: "the unbearable lightness …" is an ongoing series of work in which I reflect the long lasting struggle with my experience of trauma, emotional harm and subsequent identity and self-image issues.
Instagram: Tulobam
Artist name: Lindsey Power
Title: The Forest Has Its Own Night
Media: Acrylic. Ink.
Description: I paint my state of mind having bi polar. I often work backwards with layers of chaotic paint being removed to create a kind of order that I can live with.
Instagram: Lindseypowerartist
Artist name: Laura Greenway
Title: Obsession
Media: Blank ink on hand (photograph)
Description: Hand washing is one of the main rituals that OCD sufferer Laura undertakes a part of her psychiatric illness. This piece explores the way in which her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder constantly tells her that her hands are not clean by using the repeated phrase 'What If?'
Instagram: lauragreenwayartist
Artist name: Jenni Bea
Title: Untitled
Media: Photography
Description: When creating this image I was thinking about how much effort I put into pretending to be okay, how exhausting it is to be keeping secrets & constantly putting on a brave face. I was wishing I could let go of the fear that holds me back from being able to open up to the people around me, & wondering what they would think if they knew how I felt.
Instagram: @jenni_bea
