meeting through making
a place to share work and reflections attached to it.
click on the images for practitioner reflection.
Click here for an easy art project you can make from shapes in nature
This month’s feature: Reflections on the varying states of being human in relation to mental illness and diagnoses:
‘PTSD’ by David Gamble
‘Mind Sounds’ by Jenny Cave-Jones
‘PTSD’ by David Gamble
‘I was diagnosed with depression, EUPD and PTSD a few years ago after extensive psychiatric treatment. The symptoms of these conditions seem to be almost interchangeable and hard to pinpoint a particular symptom pertaining to a particular condition. Painting serves as a catharsis and really lifts my mood. It is a natural anti-depressant and I have been coping with lockdown through painting. Mental illness feels like a oppressive monster, debilitating and relentless. That is what I’ve tried to show in this triptych. Practicing an art form gives a person a real sense of identity and a place in the world. It is a means of expressing thoughts or feelings that are often difficult to articulate. It can be a universal language that transcends different dialects. I believe it is of great help to those living in a painful world, it certainly doesn’t matter if the practitioner is any good. What matters is that they try.’ (David Gamble, Artist).
Just two of David’s many technically accomplished and powerfully insightful self-portraits. Visit his instagram page @david_r_gamble _art
Mind Sounds
A reflection on, and response to, people literally and metaphorically feeling like they are not receiving the right communication from other people or parts of their own psyche during experiencing quickly cycling mental states.
‘Draining’
by a senior practitioner working with children in the mental health system
‘I found this picture cathartic. I've had some counselling for this issue and I sorted many things out. I've always found it difficult to put into words what happened. Art gives me an outlet where I can express how I feel without remembering the traumatic events. Interestingly the subconscious seems to speak in this picture. I choose managa so the girl wouldn't look too like me and then in the end the hair reflected a style from back then.’
clips, videos and performance
Ruth Dixon is a person-centred counsellor working in private practice with adults and young people - she’s also an incredibly talented and insightful musician and poet.
A powerful animated short film of lived experience, created in collaboration with the participant, himself an animator and illustrator.
An experimental short made in response to David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, exploring unconscious mental states and the shadow concept
Heart of Gratitude - virtual mini exhibition