During this pandemic, millions of us have experienced a mental health problem, or seen a loved one struggle.
For Mental Health Awareness Week, we asked to hear your stories and to share your artwork inspired by your experience of mental health or wider themes of mental health awareness. What follows are some of those stories.
Gaby Cooper Art
Throughout the turmoil and upheaval brought to our normal lives by the pandemic many people have found solace and comfort in the constancy of nature.
I am definitely one of those people, and as one lockdown followed another, and the rollercoaster that is Covid continued delivering new twists and turns, I found myself focussing in on the small and simple details within nature - dew drops on gorse flowers, the layers of birdsong in the air, the abstract patterns captured within thickly frozen puddles on the uplands. Observing nature’s unfaltering progress helped me to cope with the uncertainty and feelings of overwhelm brought on by the barrage of pandemic information which it became all too easy to be drawn into.
While I have always indulged my creative side though writing, painting and textile crafts, lockdown gave me more time to invest in my artistic interests, and pursue a project which I had had in mind for over a year.
In March 2020 just as the pandemic struck the island, we had to fell a beautiful 120 year old beech tree due to disease. We were brokenhearted to have to do so, as for many years it had been a magnificent and dominant feature of our garden, and one which we had enjoyed immensely, noting its changes as each season passed.
As the tree was slowly cut down and dismantled before our eyes, I couldn’t bear the thought of all the history held in its branches just being turned into chippings and fire wood.
I resolved to do something to commemorate the tree, and celebrate its long and varied life. We kept as much of the wood as we could and as I walked amongst the different cuts of wood, I noticed beautiful details in the grain and bark which I decided to explore further through the medium of print.
I began my beech tree printing project during the third lockdown on the island, in March 2021. The pandemic had blown apart the daily routine which I thrived on, and the project helped me enormously to cope with this disruption. By having this creative project to focus on I was able to channel my energies positively, when it often felt like I was surrounded by negativity.
My experience throughout the process of preparing and printing a piece of wood is therapeutic, almost meditative, and through working and handling the wood, I feel connected to nature and my surroundings. This creative journey has given me the stability which I have craved through the last year of uncertainty.
Additional information:
To view my work visit @gabycooperart on Facebook and Instagram
My prints are for sale and I have pledged to donate £5 from each sale to the Isle of Man Woodland Trust for the planting of native Manx saplings. For enquiries email gabycooperart@gmail.com
Warwick Landon
I am now 51 years old. I have, since I can remember had a deep inner feeling of not belonging. A sincere outlook that has always left me feeling like i'm looking from the outside in, not a part of, disconnected. In around 2005 this came to a point in my life where I experienced such a disconnection, even from myself I actually prayed for help. Help came in so many ways that I couldn't even begin to share this within this short message.
One of the many ways I find peace within myself now is through art. Expressing the moment in however that looks and feels. I use oils mostly for painting and often love to sketch. The movement of firstly accepting fully the thoughts and feelings in any moment and then expressing that in a free flowing movement onto canvas or paper is a beautiful way to release energy and or emotion. Combined with a good meditation practice and breathwork this holds me in a more anchored place within myself. So much so that now I am endeavouring to take a giant leap into full time art and writing. Trusting that when one finds something one loves that the richness of that life far outways the fears of finance, although to receive financial abundance would be greatly appreciated. My hope is that sharing this might inspire others to try art as a medium of self expression as when we keep things inside, they stay inside.
