Category: Issue 2 – Mental Illness, Health and Recovery
Editor’s Letter – Issue 2 – Mental Illness, Health and Recovery
Debs Carter wants to help women share their stories with one another, as she has about her struggles with depression, connecting each other through her amazing organisation The Touch Network.
Visual Artist Mark Lloyd says “Art can provide an avenue for self-expression, Art can enable us to realise the truth, art can provide hope and wonder, elements that can provoke change and save lives”.
Illustrator, animator and writer Andreea Stan says art saves lives “There were situations when I felt that my art was the only thing I had and it kept me going, it didn’t let me give up”.
Denny Reader talks to ASLI about his schizophrenia and using his creativity, saying “Its gives me a purpose and a platform to share my ideas and myself with the world around me”.
Indian visual artist Sravanthi Juluri speaks to ASLI, “my work has been a major source of healing in my life. I never thought my art could actually help women in distress to come out in the open about the abuse they have faced and open up a platform to raise our voices and say no to violence against women”.
Musician and composer Shell Dooley speaks about music as therapy “I think creative expression is one of the best forms of therapy. It gives an individual a chance to communicate feelings that may not be able to come out in other forms. It can also be very calming and provide a focus and stability”.
Writer and poet Janeen Pergrin Rastall speaks to ASLI “I believe that creative work can inspire people to endure, to have hope and to express their dreams and despairs in a positive way”.
ASLI Team member and artist Lisa Reeve talks about having mental illness and using art, “I find art a less threatening way to articulate my thoughts and feelings, it is great therapy and gives me a sense of achievement and productivity”.
Joyce Savage is on a mission to end stigma associated with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) and uses poetry to manage her own mental health.
Andrea Ballance is a survivor of the Buddhist group NKT and tells ASLI “I have lived through PTSD and RT (religious trauma). I feel that I have something to say that can help people. I feel art in all its facets has an important role to play in an individual’s health and the health of our whole society”.
Esi Yankey speaks to ASLI about domestic violence and PTSD and says “I am firmly committed to speaking up on topics that too many people remain silent on.”
Artist Jessica Caudery “Writing, painting and drawing directly and indirectly became a way to express my emotions. It is difficult to say to what extent art has saved my life but it has been a constant positive, something which has perhaps kept me afloat during times of stress, anxiety and mild depression”.
ASLI Artist Louise Tomkinson states: “to me, “art saves lives” means having the power to use the language of art, as art is strong enough to pull someone back from the brink, therefore becoming the voice which enables art to create change”.
Youth, mental illness and discrimination. A theoretical approach By Becky Saunders
ASLI Team Member Becky Saunders “My journey in a nutshell” – Mental Illness, Health and Recovery
Visual Artist Lynn Excell speaks about grief, depression and staying creative: “‘Art Saves Lives’ to me, means that art is a way of helping to heal us when we are broken”.
ASLI Speak to Artist Mistresslisa Taylor about mental health and art in which she states, “Hand on my heart, art has saved my life. Without it I would be dead”.
