Source: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/category/blog/talking-about-mental-health
It’s time to talk
Mental Illness Statistics and Facts
• 1 in 4 people experience mental health issues each year
• 676 million people are affected by mental health issues worldwide
• Mental illness is the largest single source of burden of disease in the UK. Mental illnesses are more common, long-lasting and impactful than other health conditions
• 70-75% of people with diagnosable mental illness receive no treatment at all
• Over a third of the public think people with a mental health issue are likely to be violent but people with severe mental illness are more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of violent crime
• About 20% of young people with mental ill health wait more than six months to receive care from a specialist
• Between 4% and 15% of people meet the diagnostic criteria for personality disorder
Source: https://mhfaengland.org/mhfa-centre/research-and-evaluation/mental-health-statistics/
• Borderline personality disorder – 2.4 in 100 people
• Reports from both England [2] and Wales [3] suggest that approximately 1 in 8 adults with a mental health problem are currently receiving treatment. Medication is reported as the most common type of treatment for a mental health problem
Source: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/key-facts-and-trends/
• There is a strong social stigma attached to mental ill health, and people with mental health problems can experience discrimination in all aspects of their lives.
• Many people’s problems are made worse by the stigma and discrimination they experience – from society, but also from families, friends and employers.
• Nearly nine out of ten people with mental health problems say that stigma and discrimination have a negative effect on their lives.
• Society in general has stereotyped views about mental illness and how it affects people. Many people believe that people with mental ill health are violent and dangerous, when in fact they are more at risk of being attacked or harming themselves than harming other people.
• The situation is exacerbated by the media. Media reports often link mental illness with violence, or portray people with mental health problems as dangerous, criminal, evil, or very disabled and unable to live normal, fulfilled lives.
• This is far from the case.
• Research shows that the best way to challenge these stereotypes is through firsthand contact with people with experience of mental health problems. A number of national and local campaigns are trying to change public attitudes to mental illness. These include the national voluntary sector campaign Time to Change.
• The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to discriminate directly or indirectly against people with mental health problems in public services and functions, access to premises, work, education, associations and transport.
Source: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/s/stigma-and-discrimination
Source: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/category/blog/talking-about-mental-health
• We all have a brain. If it was called brain health, would have the same stigma and discrimination? What if mental health was visible and left a unique mark to each person? Would people be kinder or still presume to know what’s going on inside?
• Imagine you’ve broken your leg, then you would go to see a doctor. They give you a leaflet and put you down on a six months’ waiting list. You wait six months to then be told it might be two years before you’re seen. You’d agree that it is unacceptable. But when it comes to mental health, this is often the process we have to follow.
Source: https://www.ukyouth.org/2018/05/14/stop-mental-health-stigma-and-discrimination/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwPyyzdqw5wIVzLTtCh1xLgEwEAAYAiAAEgIHBfD_BwE
So many people suffer from mental illness, yet because of stigma and misinformation, there are still so many afraid to come forward with their problems and start up a conversation. I want my art to open up a dialogue to those it reaches, talking is such an important first step to getting over/ living with mental illness and its still such a difficult topic. I want more people to come forward with their own experiences, if we normalise mental illness more, and educate people about them- it would be a less scary subject.
Dissociation
The next symptom is Dissociation. Dissociation is a break in how your mind handles information. You may feel disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories, and surroundings. It can affect your sense of identity and your perception of time. The symptoms often go away on their own. It can feel like an out of body experience or like you’re in a thick bubble.
I am particularly proud of this illustration, and my ability to depict this phenomenon. I have not seen any other pictorial representations of dissociation and I pride myself in being able to put exactly how I feel when i’m dissociating into illustration form. In this depiction, I am shown in a social situation, and I’m drifting in and out of my body.
Impulsiveness
The third symptom for BPD criteria is Impulsive Behaviour. Impulsive behaviour includes things like drug abuse, unprotected sex and other activities that can put the sufferer in dangerous situations.
The mechanism I have used for this illustration is a pull tab with parallel movement.
Unstable Emotions
This is the second of the nine illustrations. It represents unstable emotions. This is a very common symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder, and one that I particularly struggle with. With this illness, emotions can change with no warning in the blink of an eye. This makes day to day life very difficult and can push people away.
The mechanism I have used for this piece is a spinning one. The viewer spins the wheel and changes the facial expression. The emotions I have depicted are happiness, sadness, anger and anxiety.
I failed my first couple attempts at the mechanism. The first time I made the wheel too small, and the second time, I didn’t secure the wheel well enough and it shifted in place, and the faces didn’t always match up to the body. I predicts there will be a lot of trial and error in making these mechanisms, however I think that the first two have been very successful.
Illustration one: Unstable identity
This piece is the first of 9. This one represents one of the criteria for BPD: Unstable identity. The five characters are based on myself and outfits that I actually own, this project is going to be quite I personal one. I spent years trying to figure out my style and sort of who I was as an individual- but since getting the BPD diagnosis I’ve felt slightly more okay with embracing every part of myself, even though it can still be a bit disorienting and difficult at times. It makes fitting in that much more hard.
I learned this mechanism from video tutorials on YouTube.
Paper mechanics and BPD
So my original idea was to illustrate 9 songs to represent the 9 criteria for a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (which I still might do), but since coming across JF Lemay, I really want to incorporate paper mechanics.
Therefore I have decided to make a small illustration that you can you can manually manipulate. I’m planning to make 9 to represent the 9 criteria. My current ideas are quite surreal, and will hopefully portray the struggles of BPD well.
JF Lemay
“My name is JF Lemay and i’m an illustrator from Quebec, Canada.
I always had a thing for drawing and how it allows one to create entire worlds with only a pen and a piece of paper. After being a freelance web designer for the past 10 years, I decided to pursue my dream of being an illustrator.
My artworks are often inspired by the beautiful macabre. Taking hints from H.R. Giger and Gustave Doré only to name a few, I love to explore darker themes and concepts.”- Jf Lemay https://jflemay.bigcartel.com/about
I came across this artist a couple of months ago and was immediately drawn to his work. He manually manipulates his illustrations to create a unique and intriguing way to make horror art. His ideas stem from an interest in popular culture, but I think this method would be extremely effective in portraying mental illness.
Artist talk: Bedwyr Williams
Bedwyr Williams (born 1974) in St. Asaph is a Welsh artist. His work combines installation and stand-up comedy.
This was one of my favourite artist talks as the artist was so down to earth, and was a lot lighter than some of the others. He said that there is no real meaning, he ‘had an idea, and does the idea’.
I saw the above piece in person at the saatchi and really enjoyed it without knowing the artist. I thought at the time that it was deeper than it was but I really enjoyed the concept. Each of the pairs of shoes have a story attached for the viewers to read and then can walk in the shoes.
His work is light and whimsical and I respect him deeply.
Pop up and Paper Mechanisms
After some conversations with my tutors and other students during crits, I have decided to go into the direction of paper mechanics. From my stop motion animation in second year, to the motor controlled illustration last year, I have always gravitated towards moving images and the manipulation of illustration.
I have been doing some research into paper mechanics and plan to explore the possibilities further and see if this method is good for representing BPD.
The devil in my Bloodstream idea process
I already had a few strong images in my head in relation to the song, but I wanted to make sure I captured the entirety of the song. So I wrote out the lyrics and made sure the key aspects were portrayed in the illustration.
The Devil in my Bloodstream final piece
My original plan for this piece was for there to be headphones attached to the illustration so that viewers could essentially listen to the drawing. However, upon talking with my tutor I decided that adding the music to the piece adds a layer of connotations and associations that would distract from my intention. So I displayed the imagery on its own.
This made the piece more ambiguous, and in the crit lead people to make their assumptions about the drawing which I quite enjoyed.
Although I am happy with the final outcome I’m not sure if I will continue illustrating songs. I can be creative with the imagery but obviously I have to stick to the lyrics to some degree and I’d rather have more space to explore the imagery straight from my brain.
Artist talk: Chiarenza & Hauser & co.
Marie-Antoinette Chiarenza [1957 Tunis] and Daniel Hauser [1959 Bern] are working as a team since 1983. The ”& co” in their name refers to all kind of cooperations with people. People are sometimes involved in the artworks, othertimes they are just involved in the process, depending on the context of places and themes. The group became known with statements such as thinking alone is criminal (1991), artists are no flags (1993), I am a woman, why are you not ? (1995), getting paid for doing nothing (2007 – 2009) and: you pay but you don‘t agree with the price (1994 – 2013).
This team’s work wants to deal with social order in a way that does not leave the viewer guessing. Their messages are very clear and do not want to be misinterpreted.
Song illustration
I am finding illustrating ‘The Devil in my Bloodstream’ to be a very interesting way to look at mental illness.
My main focus is BPD. Last year I was trying to represent the whole disorder in one image, but I have been considering doing 9 illustrations to represent the 9 criteria that have to be met to be diagnosed with BPD. So I’ve been trying to find a song to represent each of the 9 criteria. These are songs that I already know and are familiar with, because they mean a lot to me.
Artist talk: Jade Montserrat
Jade Montserrat is a UK based research-led artist and writer. She will be using her Residency at Metal in Southend for structured research, reflection, the development of ideas-to-date in relation to “Josephine and the Rainbow Tribe.” This will include the development of script in preparation of film and accompanying text deriving from empirical and historical excavation.
From her talk, I gather that this artists work has many meanings. Looking at the representation of women’s bodies, black bodies, and trying to challenge these modern day societal norms. Although now she is working more wearing clothes as her nakedness has been misinterpreted as sexually provocative which is the opposite of what she wanted to portray.
Our practices are very different, however I could compare our use of black and white in the above piece. Montserrat also referred to a lot of her work being triggered by trauma. This artistic response to trauma is one of the very things I am most interested in in my work.
The Devil in my Bloodstream
The first piece I have been working on is an illustration of a song.
Music is a big part of my life and acts as a great comfort when it comes to mental illness. A lot of musicians struggle with the same things which make their songs very relatable, and it’s nice to know you’re not the only one.
When I was making my stop motion animations, the song ‘I miss you’ by Blink 182 inspired a lot of the imagery.
‘The Devil in my Bloodstream’ by the Wonder Years is a song I have admired for a while, and it’s about genetic depression. I always get very strong images in my head when I listen to it, so it made sense to illustrate it. I have used the layering technique.
Final Year
This year I am going to continue my focus on mental illness, specifically Borderline Personality Disorder. I have become accustomed to my black and white Victorian type style of illustration and think this portrays what I want well. I plan to continue experimenting with layered illustration as well as moving illustration, and some of my ideas also include music.
Artist Statement- Final Exhibition
This piece is a large-scale, motorised. layered illustration exploring the theme of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
It depicts a state of mind. The ferris wheel in the centre houses eight different identities of the same person, rotating constantly into states of paradise and abyss. BPD is a disorder of mood, and how a person interacts with others. In this piece I have tried to represent some of the main symptoms of the illness. There are nine criteria that need to be met for a diagnosis: Intense and unstable relationships, Fear of being left alone, Unstable sense of self, Engaging in impulsive and/or dangerous activities, Self-harm and/or suicide attempts, Severe mood swings, Long term feelings of emptiness, Sudden and intense feelings of anger and Dissociation. Unstable sense of self is seen in the eight personalities of the wheel, self-harm and suicide are represented in the drawings outside- the image of ‘death’ and the cut arm, severe mood swings is the turning of the wheel etc.
The illustration is black and white. The reason behind this is people with the disorder often experience the world in ‘Black and White’, seeing things as either good or evil, love or hate, idealising a person or seeing them as malicious etc. Nothing is just okay, indifferent or ‘Grey’. The act of cutting the board as well as nailing on the illustrations feel like quite angry acts and reflect well the content of the piece.
The main idea behind my work is personifying BPD. Translating something into an image is always a challenge, especially when it is a state of mind- however it helps people to understand better. Most people can relate to an image more than a diagnosis, or a dictionary definition. My hope is that my piece will bring BPD awareness and help non-sufferers to empathise.
My interest in this subject comes primarily from a personal experience with the disorder, I am constantly aware that I am experiencing the world differently to those around me, and by putting this into a physical image that everyone else can see makes me feel more heard. As well as phycological curiosity.
The style of illustration came naturally to me, but there are parallels between Tim Burton’s drawing style and my own. Burton has always been a huge inspiration to me and there is evidence of him in everything I create. The piece is also informed by Dominic McGill; his work is black and white and on a huge scale. Although his work is decidedly political, I enjoyed the fact that he uses hundreds of small drawings to fill up a big space- which encouraged me to move my practise onto a larger scale. The layered illustration came from ‘shadow box’ art. I first saw the shadow box concept in the Rijksmuseum, Gerrit Schouten. I was mesmerised by this layering effect, and how almost sculptural his work was. I have always admired the art of storytelling, and this technique did it well. The question from there was ‘what story did I want to tell?
A Tim Burton illustration
Dominic McGill, He Results As Cause Of Himself (2010)
Artist statement- Wall Piece (DRAFT)
This piece is a large-scale layered illustration exploring the theme of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
It depicts a state of mind. The ferris wheel in the centre houses eight different identities of the same person, rotating constantly into states of paradise and abyss. BPD is a disorder of mood, and how a person interacts with others. In this piece I have tried to represent some of the main symptoms of the illness. There are nine criteria that need to be met for a diagnosis: Intense and unstable relationships, Fear of being left alone, Unstable sense of self, Engaging in impulsive and/or dangerous activities, Self-harm and/or suicide attempts, Severe mood swings, Long term feelings of emptiness, Sudden and intense feelings of anger and Dissociation. Unstable sense of self is seen in the eight personalities of the wheel, self-harm and suicide are represented in the drawings outside- the image of ‘death’ and the cut arm, severe mood swings is the turning of the wheel etc.
The illustration is black and white. The reason behind this is people with the disorder often experience the world in ‘Black and White’, seeing things as either good or evil, love or hate, idealising a person or seeing them as malicious etc. Nothing is just okay, indifferent or ‘Grey’. It is drawn entirely of black marker pen on white board and each piece is cut with a scalpel knife and nailed onto the wall. The act of cutting the board as well as nailing on the illustrations feel like quite angry acts and reflect well the content of the piece.
The main idea behind my work is personifying BPD. Translating something into an image is always a challenge, especially when it is a state of mind- however it helps people to understand better. Most people can relate to an image more than a diagnosis, or a dictionary definition. My hope is that my piece will bring BPD awareness and help non-sufferers to empathise.
My interest in this subject comes primarily from a personal experience with the disorder, I am constantly aware that I am experiencing the world differently to those around me, and by putting this into a physical image that everyone else can see makes me feel more heard. As well as phycological curiosity.
The style of illustration came naturally to me, but there are parallels between Tim Burton’s drawing style and my own. Burton has always been a huge inspiration to me and there is evidence of him in everything I create. The piece is also informed by Dominic McGill, an artist I saw in the Saatchi Gallery a couple of weeks prior to starting my wall. His work is black and white and on a huge scale. Although his work is decidedly political, I enjoyed the fact that he uses hundreds of small drawings to fill up a big space- which encouraged me to move my practise onto a larger scale. The layered illustration came from ‘shadow box’ art. I first saw the shadow box concept in the Rijksmuseum, Gerrit Schouten. I was mesmerised by this layering effect, and how almost sculptural his work was. I have always admired the art of storytelling, and this technique did it well. The question from there was ‘what story did I want to tell?’.
Miranda Zimmerman
I have been following this artist for a while on instagram under the name ‘faunwood’. I love this style of dark and surreal illustration and I have used aspects of it in my own work.
Romanticising Suicide
This is another black and white, layered illustration. This time the paper being black and the pen being white.
The poem to the left is one I’ve almost fetishised since my early teens. A big symptom of BPD is constant suicidal thoughts, with 46- 96% attempting suicide and 10% succeeding.
From my own experience and from what I’ve heard from other people with the disorder- suicide is radically romanticised. Seen as an escape, a way out, the end of all suffering.
Obviously misguided ideals but hard to get away from nonetheless.
This is what this drawing is trying to portray.
DZO (Oliver)
French illustrator Olivier (or DZO, as he’s also known) wishes to go deeper into his exploration of the “noosphere” (a philosophical concept about human thought) with his art.
Conjuring up the aesthetics of old etchings and religious engravings, occult manuscripts that flirt with alchemy, witchcraft and blasphemy, the artist creates intricate drawings dull of enigmatic detail.
Mixing sensuality, darkness and mythology, he strives to create pieces that are disturbing, haunting and stimulating, oozing with mystery and fascination.
This style of dark illustration is what drives a lot of my work and I hope to achieve this feeling that this artist creates.
The demon inside
This is my first moving piece
Viva
‘Hi. I thought I’d start by showing you my latest completed piece ‘A Black and White view of the World’.
‘These are shadow boxes. Different layers of illustration are spaced from front to back of the box-frames, creating depth and adding another dimension. I have used pen and ink in a surrealist style’.
‘These were my first ever attempts at shadow-boxing. its a bit difficult to see in an image, but I painted each layer individually and raised each one higher with foam pads. Although I enjoyed the effect of the box, the content wasn’t resonating enough with me.
All of my previous work has been about mental illness and the personification of it. I wanted to incorporate this into a shadow-box format. I decided to focus on one particular illness’.
‘Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), also known as unstable personality disorder, is a chronic mental illness defined by long-term patterns of abnormal behaviour characterised by unstable relationships, unstable sense of self and unstable emotions (On the board is the 9 criteria that need to be met for a diagnosis).
My interest in this comes from personal experience as well as psychological curiosity. it has always fascinated me how different each persons perception of reality is. As well as how much mental illness can warp reality’.
‘This is my first BPD sketch. I’ve always found images better explain something- as well as helping mw make sense of them.
This is a drawing of the words you just saw on the last slide, and although they’re both saying the same thing – I think the drawing is much more scary.
What you’re seeing is three personalities struggling to co-exist amongst a plethora of emotions and hurt.
At this point I already knew I wanted to explore shadow-box art- but I needed to get this on paper before I exploded.
I Spoke to Angus about shadow-box art, he suggested looking at toy theatres’.
‘Toy theatres were primarily around in Victorian times, and gave me the idea to take shadow-boxing a step further’.
‘And so I transformed my original sketch into a deep shadow-box piece. Although overall I consider this to be a successful piece, it wasn’t what I had envisioned.
I think making my first box 60cm deep was slightly too ambitious- so I started to look at artists who have done shadow-boxing in the past’.
‘I saw this artist on Instagram and is one of the reasons I wanted to try shadow-boxing myself. He has a very illustrative style as well as his beautiful, surrealish compositions’.
‘Katy Campbell can be seen in the first piece I showed you ‘A Black and White view of the World’. I enjoy the way she cuts out the illustrations of a book to tell the story in a different way. Story telling has always been apart of my own practise’.
‘This was the next piece I did. I tried watercolour in this one and a much shallower shadow box.
Dissociation is a common phenomenon experienced by people with BPD. It happens when emotions get too overwhelming, the body goes into protection mode and can feel like an out-of-body experience.
I also had to get creative with materials in this one. I settled for transparent plastic for the consciousness, so that it is both there and isn’t.’
‘Which brings me back to this piece’
‘In this one I wanted to portray what the world looks like through the eyes of a BPD sufferer. Often, they see the world in black and white- good or evil.
I had so many more ideas for this piece that I decided to turn it into a tryptic’.
‘The left frame is entirely bad thing, and the right is just good. At first glance they may look quite similar, but I wanted the content to be contrasting as possible.
When I showed Angus, he said they reminded him of Victorian picture books’.
‘So that’s where I’m going next. I am currently working on a piece in which the viewer will be able to interact with the drawing. this will be displayed in a shadow-box frame, with a mechanism on the outside which the viewer will be able to turn the ferris wheel themselves. Making them apart of the art. The people in the cars represent different personalities, and the spinning wheel represents the constant highs and lows of BPD’.
Week 9 Exhibition
I decided to exhibit my tryptic ‘A Black and White view of the World’ in St. John’s Parish hall.
This decision was based on the fact that the hall is used for all manner of community events so will host every type of person. Whereas the art department and night club only attract a certain type of person. My piece is about mankind as a whole, the world in every light- so I thought this location was the most appropriate.
I displayed outside the main hall in the corridor. The hall was more isolated as well as being black and white- matching my piece.
Week 5 Exhibition
This is a shadow box piece exploring the theme of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
It depicts a state of mind. Three personalities struggling to coexist, amongst an army of relentless and unforgiving emotions. BPD is a disorder of mood, and how a person interacts with others. In this piece I have tried to represent some of the main symptoms of the illness. The three figures are three personalities. The personality nearest the back (holding the baby) is desperately trying to mother the other two, she is the primary personality and trying to keep everything together while obviously having to deal with everyday life. The baby is another personality, it is young, naïve and very dependant- it has to function in an adult body, in an adult life and obviously struggles with that a lot.
The frame, seen at eye level, protrudes 60cm behind the wall. Different layers of illustration are spaced from front to back of the box-frame, creating a staggered effect. Both frame and illustration are black and white.
The box, or frame is made from wood measured and cut to size with a table saw and screwed together. I then painted it black. The slides inside are made from thick card painted white. I drew the scenes with charcoal and cut around them with a scalpel before inserting them into the shadow box.
The main idea behind my work is personifying BPD. Translating something into an image is always a challenge, especially when it is a state of mind- but it’s a challenge I enjoy, and it helps people to understand better. Most people can relate to an image more than a diagnosis, or a dictionary definition. My hope is that my piece will bring BPD awareness and help non-sufferers to empathise.
My interest in this subject come primarily from a personal experience with the disorder. I am constantly aware that I am experiencing the world differently to those around me, and by putting this into a physical image that everyone else can see makes me feel more heard.
I first saw the shadow box concept in the Rijksmuseum, Gerrit Schouten. I was mesmerised by this layering effect, and how almost sculptural his work was. I have always admired the art of storytelling, and this technique did it well. The question from there was ‘what story did I want to tell?’.
Joseph Cornell
Cornell’s signature art form is the shadow box. Infused with a dream-like aura, the shadow boxes invite the viewer into Cornell’s own private, magical world. Alternately known as “memory boxes” or “poetic theaters,” the boxes evoke the memories associated with the items contained within, while also containing parallels with, or expressing reverence for, other art forms, such as theater, ballet, and film.
Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades,” Cornell elevated the found object to the center of his oeuvre and embodied a new paradigm of the artist as collector and archivist. Often purchased on Cornell’s frequent visits to New York secondhand shops or cut out from magazines, these objects comprise the primary materials of his art; they not only inhabit Cornell’s shadow boxes, they are also key to other aspects of his artistic practice, such as his famous “dossiers,” which were organized repositories of visual-documentary source material collected by the artist.
Although he was never officially part of the Surrealist movement and came to dismiss the Surrealist label in relation to his own work, Surrealism was a major influence on Cornell, most notably inspiring his embrace of unexpected juxtapositions. Rejecting Surrealism’s violent and erotic aspects, Cornell preferred instead what he described as the “white magic” side of Surrealism embodied by Max Ernst. Cornell played a major role in America Surrealism; in 1939, his art was famously described by Salvador Dalí as “the only truly Surrealist work to be found in America.”
Cornell has been a big inspiration in the making of my own work. The content isn’t quite what drew me to his work but the style. I’m fascinated by the layering and the 3 dimensionness of his work. I also like the idea of Cornell creating his own ‘magical’ world. I am exploring a similar concept in my own work, apart from mine is less than ‘magical’.
Bpd sketch
This is a visual representation of how bpd feels (in my opinion). The drawing is of one soul. There are three different personalities struggling to coexist; and the faces floating around them represent the extreme emotions.
I think the drawing is successful, the charcoal and the bold style makes it very expressive. The next step is to translate this into shadow box form.
Borderline Personality Disorder
I have chosen to focus on borderline personality disorder as I feel I could get more out of exploring just one mental illness. It is also an illness I have personal experience with and it’ll be easier to portray things I have experienced.
Borderline personality disorder(BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by unstable relationships with other people, unstable sense of self and unstable emotions.
Adam Ohlers
This is an artist I found on instagram who started my shadow box journey. I love the illustration style and of course the different layers. I find them enchanting and captivating- like a little world of his own. I wanted to harness that. Although my world was to be darker. 
Illustrating my own stories
I enjoy writing short stories. I always have, so in my illustration journey ive decided to show illustrations of my own stories.
This is a story I wrote called ‘Jam Mortuum, Ad Tempas’ which is Latin for ‘Already Dead, Time to go’. Its about a girl with schizophrenia who lets her delusions get the better of her, and ultimately ends in her committing murder.
The illustration in acrylic paint and coloured pencil. I wanted it to reflect the childlike, fantasy tone the story has, while also having the underlying darkness and fear that this mental disorder creates.
I think this piece is successful and I would like to explore mental disorders more in my illustration journey.
Tim Burton
As Tim Burton was the main influence behind my last project, I have decided to use his work as inspiration for a few illustrations. 
(I know that Coraline isn’t Tim Burton but I thought it would work well in this illustration style).
I actually got the style from a form of geometric tattoo art that is popular at the moment. Using the symmetry of the shapes can create some very aesthetic designs.
All of the designs are pen and ink. Although I think these are very successful, I would rather continue to explore mental illness in my work and explore this more through illustration. 
Summer: illustration
Near the beginning of last year I looked into illustration, and decided to explore stop motion animation instead. Over the summer I have decided to revisit illustration and look into it more deeply.
When I hear the word ‘illustration’ my mind goes to story books and fairy tales. So I’ve decided to explore this first.
DRAFT* Artist statement: Would you?
This is a stop motion animation exploring the themes of storytelling and depression.
The set was made with painted cardboard and clay, and the figures were made with painted polystyrene and pipe-clean wires. The actual animation was filmed on an iPhone 6 using a softbox light in a dark-room. Stop motion works by taking a photo of the scene, moving it slightly, taking another picture, moving it slightly, taking another picture and so on; to give the illusion that the characters are moving of their own accord.
I started this animation with the sole intention to tell a story, I have always been interested in storytelling and write short gothic stories in my spare time. I was going to let the theme be interpreted by the individual viewer (and I still have) however depression kept creeping into the storyline and I, as an individual viewer, see this animation as a personification of depression. The human characters try and avoid ‘depression’ but cannot. This theme has been explored many times before, but I have done it in the form of a juvenile horror animation. Both the monster and the black paint represent depression for me. The characters are afraid of the monster and avoid him, but he keeps coming back- the paint is the depression starting to touch and actively affect them.
I find the relationship between my idea and the process interesting because of their contrast. Essentially, this piece was made by me playing with dolls, a very childish innocent act- however I was playing out the very adult theme of mental illness.
My work is partly confessional; but my main intention was to make the viewer uncomfortable as well as making them question what they were seeing. The conversation I was aiming to generate was one of analysing the meaning behind the video, what was the monster? Do you relate to the characters? Which characters?
Art with more than one possible meaning is interesting to me, and I wouldn’t want to take anything away from the viewer by giving away what I thought the meaning was because then they are burdened with only seeing it from my perspective.
My main influence was Tim Burton although I had many.
Suzie Templeton
Templeton is an award-winning writer and director, specialising in stop motion animation. Known for her Oscar-winning film Peter and the Wolf, Suzie takes us into a world filled with beauty and emotion. Her vulnerable characters are honestly depicted and although visually shown as puppets, they are unbelievably human.
The detailed sets and clear emotions of the characters is exactly what i tried to get across in my own piece. Its not overly relevant, but Templeton is also the first female stop motion artist i have come across- which is why i wanted to make sure i express her influence on my work.
The final scene!!
This is the scene that will connect the end of the film to the beginning- creating the loop. We will see what it looks like all together.
Soundscape continued
We will play this on a loop in the nightmare room. This will help the effectiveness of my piece as it will incorporate more of the senses.
We are also thinking about creating a strange smell, like rotting leaves.
Soundscape
In the ‘nightmare room’ we have decided to make a collaborative soundscape to fill the whole room. We have all chosen sounds that compliment our pieces and have merged them together to create an overall creepy and ominous feeling within the room.
Narrative art
A narrative is simply a story. Narrative art is art that tells a story. Much of Western art until the twentieth century has been narrative, depicting stories from religion, myth and legend, history and literature (see history painting). Audiences were assumed to be familiar with the stories in question. (Tate definition)
My practise is strongly concerned with storytelling, and that is what narrative art does. I have found stop motion to be a very effective way to tell a story as it is engaging and accessible.
Some good examples of narrative art are:
Josephine and the Fortune-Teller (1837)
This a piece by Sir David Wilkie painted for John Abel Smith, M.P., and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837. The subject was an incident from Josephine’s youth on the island of Martinique. Wilkie may have taken the details of his picture from an account by John Memes, who in his 1831 ‘Memoirs of the Empress Josephine’.
The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane (1858)
This piece is by American artist John Quidor, depicting a scene from Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
Guernica (1937)
This piece is by Pablo Picasso, it is considered one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history. The large mural shows the suffering of people wrenched by violence and chaos. Prominent in the composition are a gored horse, a bull, and flames.
The painting was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian warplanes at the request of the Spanish Nationalists.
These pieces are important to me as they all have a story to tell. Storytelling has always been apart of my nature and researching artists who have incorporated this into their art has been very useful to my own practise.
Depression
My original animation was created with depression and death in mind. As I got further in I started to be more open with the themes, and leave it to interpretation, take it at fave value or deeper- depending on the viewer. However it is hard to leave it up to interpretation when depression is such I big part of my life- and has an impact on so many things. So I am steering the animation back towards the theme of depression, and in a form of confessional art.
Rachel Gibson 