'Art Helps People Live With Mental Illness'

A lovely, very recent article about patients producing art to self soothe, here is an extract:

'"Because of the stigma about mental illness," Carmel (1) -- her "stage" name -- tells me, "I get treated like I am not functional in society. Here we are treated like artists, and I feel like an artist, not a mental patient." She is working on a fairly large canvas. She has painted a background in shades of blue and has just added a flower in vibrant purple. "I have a cocktail of anxiety and depression," she says. "Blue is healing. It helps me slow down and be in the moment. I hope it helps others too."

The work being done at the studio is a remarkable mix of genres and styles. Elliott Johnson is working on an illustration that could be used in a magazine. He tells me he has recently sold two paintings at an art exhibit. Barry Senft is "experimenting," he says, with a geometric design, although usually he paints portraits. Phillip Clark creates his own action heroes. Today he is drawing "Princess Powergal." Everette Ball, who usually prefers inanimate objects, is drawing eyes today. Paul Kordas is working on a painting of a religious figure using very strong colors and a form of chiaroscuro that he tells me he has borrowed from Rembrandt.

Samantha Alvarez, who is sitting on the floor, doesn't seem to notice me watching her paint a female figure with a bizarre blue face and a woman who appears to be flying through a bright red sky until I say something to her. Then she looks up, smiles, and tells me that she likes surrealism -- especially Dali and Kahlo.'

The full article is available here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-friedman-lmsw/art-therapy_b_1535848.html

It would seem that art provides sufferers with a normality in their lives that they wouldn't normally have. I'd be interested to look into the connections between colour and mood, and how this can affect the sufferer.

Personal Project Inspiration: Oskar Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet

As I make my move into three-dimensional work, I have been hugely inspired by Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet. I love how the costumes are so bizarre and unworldly, yet as they come together, and move, they are so beautiful. This is the sort of harmony I would love to achieve within my work.

I would also love to try out animation with my pros and characters, once I have made them.

Personal Project Inspiration: Mark Hearld

One of my main faults is that I find it incredibly hard to experiment, and often find safety in producing a highly rendered piece, which can end up a little flat and lifeless. I am desperate to try and conquer this in my third year.

I went to see an exhibition by Mark Hearld at Foyle's, in which his illustrations for 'A First Book of Nature', where showcased. What I found the most inspiring about this, was how the images looked beautifully accomplished, but not 100% finished - and this is something that I need to realise can be achieved.

His images have been created by sticking things down, tearing things off, applying brushes of ink, rubbing things out, and so on, but the remnants of these, for example, pencil marks that had later been erased, had not been completely eradicated - yet this did not detract from the work at all. It is this level of confidence that I would love to achieve.

Images from: http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/05/a-first-book-of-nature/

This article is interesting, because not only does it speak about artists who themselves have suffered from mental illness, but those who have had to cope with living along side the sufferers too - something which is often forgotten to be incredible difficult.
This includes artist Jonathan Tucker-Bull:


'The disturbing but evocative image of a sculpture spliced through with images of the artist represents Jonathan Tucker-Bull's disturbed relationship with his mother.

Her manic depression caused him to leave home at the age of just 16 and he turned to art as a form of therapy.

Now his work, Genetic Evolution forms one of a 1,000 exhibits in a new exhibition, Art Works in Mental Health, which opens at Dali Universe, County Hall Gallery, London, on Wednesday.'

Tucker-Bulls image of mental health.

The whole article is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2073018.stm

Bobby Baker's Diary Entries...

Here are a few of Bobby Baker's drawings from her diaries, (all sourced from http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/):

Interesting Website Telling the Story of a Bipolar Artist

http://www.artbynicola.co.uk/#story

Mental Breakdown, Oil Painting, 2009 

Recovery, Oil Painting, 2009

Nicola Oliver is someone who found a talent and passion for painting after the development of Bipolar Disorder. Interestingly, these paintings are not dissimilar to some of my drawings. The visual language is certainly linked.

Mental Health and Art

'New research shows the positive benefits of arts projects to people's mental health. Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Central Lancashire and the South Essex partnership NHS foundation trust studied clients at six different arts and inclusion projects around the country.'

The full article is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/sep/24/mental.health.art#/?picture=337205950&index=3

But here is an example of one of the paintings:

 

' View from a friend’s house - Anne Corris
When Corris started the Arts on Prescription course, she was a complete beginner and developed her skills and confidence over the course. This painting, a rural scene near Leek in Staffordshire, took several months to complete and gave Corris the opportunity to learn new skills. She now attends Artistic Moves, run by former members of AOP. Corris says regularly attending AOP improved her wellbeing.'

Initial reading for my dissertation...

I have been interested in the relationship between mental illness and the artist for a very long time, and am thinking about it forming the basis of my dissertation.

An interesting article I found on artist Bobby Baker, who has struggled with mental illness herself.


An extract:

'While many artists have had mental health problems - Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Vincent van Gogh all reportedly suffered from clinical depression - Baker says she actively used her art as a talking point with the professionals who were trying to help her. "Recovery is about communicating, so if my pictures can communicate with people in some way, that's great," she says.
Baker is hopeful about the prognosis for mental health care. She says that although services "are not there yet", things are much better than many imagine. "We are very negative in this country, but we have some extraordinary practice here [compared to mainland Europe]."
Ultimately, Baker would like mental health services to become much more holistic. "It's very easy, when you are mentally ill, for people just to look at your mental illness, but recovery is about the whole of you," she says.'

The full article is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/mental-health-bobby-baker-exhibition

Bobby Baker is based in East London, so perhaps contact would be possible?