I decided to do a series for this final project focused on mental illness I experience. I ended up using a large variety of materials alongside the incorporation of some collage techniques to produce the final products. The top left exhibits a feeling of dissociation- when your body doesn’t really feel real. So I wanted it to look like someone was watching their hands dissolve. Completely out of touch. The top middle is centered around the idea of masking your mental state until you can’t anymore. You feel like you’re puppeteering yourself throughout everyday just to make it through, but eventually even that becomes to cumbersome. So I wanted it to look like the puppeteer had lost focus/ had fallen asleep, leaving the puppet itself motionless and unable to perform. The top right was just to represent a general feeling of disconnect in my head. I wanted to convey the idea that similar to a machine, something had been broken, not bruised. I also wanted that technological look so I could have TV static in the eyes, representative of how those snapped wires screw with my perspective of myself and those around me. And the last one was to show a general feeling of overwhelm and isolation. There’s this instability of this tiny platform with all this sensory surrounding it. I wanted it to look the way I feel when my brain is screaming “things are too much”. Overall, it was really fun to explore these concepts and learn how to handle some unfamiliar materials! I was surprised by the vibrancy of the watercolors! I would probably do the wire one a little differently. If nothing else, I’d use watercolor for the skin/face instead of messy marker.
