Patterns of Mental Health & Art

This post will explore the symbolism and significance of pattern in artworks influenced by the artist's experiences of mental health.

Your Pain Is My Pain by Paula Scotter

‘This represents dysfunction patterns in relationships. It is the expectation that if you put someone else’s needs before your own, somehow this will make you happy. You allow yourself to be badly treated and have few boundaries, then wonder why you feel so hurt and alone. It’s letting your feelings build up and up, until one day you realise and run away – away from the relationship and the ill treatment. The pattern repeats until you say no more and move forward into self-awareness, self-love and healing. Therapy was my route for this. Victim no more.’

Mind Vomit - Unknown Artist - the Perspective Project

‘This represents the daily conversation within my mind. Anxious thoughts, depressive thoughts, sub-thoughts, thoughts about the thoughts, a constant critical commentary and a tornado of darkness, numbness and complete inner turmoil.’

"As more individuals share their experience of using art as therapy and how it can help with recovery, there will be a greater understanding of the value of arts programs in providing opportunities for healing, self-rediscovery, the formation of a new identity, and acceptance in the wider community," said exhibition curator Gabrielle Du Plooy.

Through art, each patient-artist’s sense of individuality is heightened and the creative process becomes a tool to channel emotions and experiences that would not otherwise have emerged and been worked through in traditional therapeutic settings.

Mark Carr

" art is a form of release for him and a way to stay connected to both self and surroundings. He describes his life as having been full of both positive and negative experiences, as well as all that lies between, and feels that his print “deals with our blurred lives and the broken interiors it creates”.

Sean Williams

"My painting is intended to be a metaphor for a certain state of mind. I have experienced anxiety, depression and trauma, and was looking for an image that reflected that in some way, but that could also be interpreted in other ways.  I would not want my work to be specifically about my feelings.  It is a challenge to find something more generic.” (Sean Williams)

Graphic design isn’t the first medium most artists would go to in order to express mental illness or emotion. There’s a disconnect when creating something entirely out of geometric shapes on a screen, one that often impedes the expression of a complex emotional range. Sure, there’s infographics a-plenty to explain mental illness, but the results are generally utilitarian rather than artistic.

Still, three different graphic designers have taken up the challenge of digitally expressing the complexity of mental illness. Dani Balenson, Nick Barclay and Patrick Smith have all utilized the popular minimalist aesthetic to provide tidy representations of inherently messy concepts.

It should be noted that whether the illustrations succeed or fail to accurately reflect the realities of having mental illness or experiencing certain emotions is entirely up to the individual.

Patrick Smith: OCD

Nick Barclay: Withdrawal

Dani Balenson: pattern for ADHD

Dani explained that "The color combo for ADHD is made up of green hues. As a symbolic color for creativity and growth, green correlates to the fact that ADHD is often (but not always) diagnosed at a younger age. Both hues are bright, as the disorder also results in an energetic and hyperactive persona. The module represents an ADHD person’s distracted train of thought and the tendency to bounce around from one thing to another. It is a visual deviation in thought and action: the color shifts, the size changes, and the bigger circle is left unfinished. The pattern is a slightly skewed repetition of the module, which creates the bigger picture of an energized, unfocused, and lively mass. "

Dani has used her designs to adorn t-shirts and is working collaboratively with Active Minds, a portion from each sale also gets donated to the charity. (More Info)