Artist Statement
My work explores the relationship between the physical body and how it’s affected by mental health, through metaphorical growths of foliage/fungus and flowers on the body. I do this through the depiction of the body as it is experiencing depression, showing the mushrooms feeding on the body itself. I also depict the body in happy/healthier times, allowing flowers to grow from it in a more codependent partnership rather than a parasitic one.
By depicting my own underweight figure, posed in uncomfortable positions with proliferations of fungus/mushrooms, I show the concept of “feeding”/bodily decay through a literal illustration. While mushrooms become a symbolic form of depression, robbing nutrients from everything that surrounds them, flowers are shown to be there because the host allows them. They embody the idea of getting better and continuously making attempts to do so.
The largest piece in the series shows a more explicit visualization of this struggle showing two figures; one body underweight and one healthier, fighting for dominance while still being a part of the same organism that keeps them alive. There is a struggle in both wanting to get better and the ability to do so when it comes to any mental health struggle. Seeking help and going through the steps to better one’s self are itself a fight.
With these works I present visibility to variations of mental health, as well as depict how it can make those who suffer with it feel and represent it in a way that others can understand.
