The piece “Dear Me” depicts how I currently take care of my mental health–journaling and writing down my worries and stressors. I hope that one day, I can look back on all my journal entries as a fond reminder of the past, rather than as something that holds painful memories. Additionally, the background shows practices I wish to incorporate into my daily routine in the future to take better care of my mental health, such as meditating and taking better care of my body.
My entry expresses my anxiety about the environment. Fear should not be seen as a weakness but strength because without fear there is no bravery. By painting this I expressed that with every new year I receive more knowledge which may scare me and crack the safety of the walls I have put up but the new information can also inform me about things that are happening in the world in which I may do something about.
I chose this category because it is something that I feel very strongly about. I want peace and justice in the world. I want everyone to be treated equally and I want everyone to feel included and accepted no matter their race, gender, or sexuality.
I an an Indian and I feel a social and emotional struggle while trying to balance 2 different lifestyles/ethnicities and how society portrays me and how that can affect me.
This entire entry is based on climate change and global warming. Now we are reaching points where we are worsening the amount of carbon in our air by deforestation, we are ruining animals habitats such as the polar bears in the arctic, and weather patterns just keep on getting more and more unpredictable. I portray our earth in all her glory, plants and flowers adorning her hair. Water and our oceans that make up her skin. Although her face is cracked off, we have the part of the earth we still have yet to save and then the part we have lost to our own selfishness.
I wanted to make a piece focusing on the recent events of the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court. I wanted to make a piece as a reminder of why this is so dangerous and affects every woman in the US and to also remind people that these laws on women’s bodies are made by people who don’t take into consideration the difficult decisions women sometimes have to make and may have no experience with having a reproductive system.
This paint reflects what my mind was going through while I was sick.
The bubble with words provides what gives that person hope to move forward. No matter how hard life got, those were their inspiration to keep going. The door represents the future and the good it will hold.
I allow myself to display my anger through my art. I remind myself I am more than a mental illness by telling myself I am creative, artistic and inventive. I have been learning how to cope with my mental illness by creating beautiful things through my artwork.
Love is being held by trees, hoping to rise above everything else. Despite the pain there is still a sky.