My work explores aspects of mental illness, and specifically how it’s overlooked, even ignored throughout the world. In many countries the whole of the community is valued over the individual. Those who suffer mental issues are labeled as faulty, when in reality their illness is not something a person can control. In order to be treated with respect and kindness, the individual must hide their difficulties and pretend to be “normal” leading to lessening of self worth.
     A person confined to a wheelchair is never questioned about their abilities; it is simply accepted. Those with “invisible” illnesses face judgement and backlash when incapable of performing a task. My goal is to take these “invisible” illnesses and make them visible, to show that because something isn’t obvious doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. My work addresses the daily life of an individual, and the mental toll it costs to simply exist. I want to illustrate this concept with figures confined to a scenario of the daily battle, and a physical representation of the illness itself in ink and graphite. My work is a journal that is then put into a collage at the end. Everyday one drawing is done with a range of complexity. Simple drawings are days that my illness was too difficult to keep going; complex drawings represent days that my ability to cope was improved.
     In my work the use of genderless figures is used to dispel gender bias. The repeating eyes are the view of the “neurotypical” person who pass judgment based only on what they can see. The physical representation of depression is depicted as either dark water or a murky, viscous fluid. The fluids are meant to show that depression never goes away. A person drags the symptoms with them everywhere and it affects everything the individual does.
     If you or anyone you know suffers from mental illness, please have sympathy for their plight and provide them with the resources I’ve included.