Darkly Pine.

by Wildman | 10/10/2018 | Art, Life

Today is ‘World Mental Health Day’ and I wanted to share something with you.
I have been an ‘artist’ for as long as I can remember. A Comic Book artist, a Concept Artist and now a Storyboard Artist. But in spite of thirty years drawing stuff I consider that I have only produced one piece of real ‘ART’ in my life. This…

So what’s the difference? I consider that all my other work is basically Illustration or problem solving. I love it and it uses the skills I have accumulated over the years. In it’s own way it is ‘Art’ but the piece above is something else. It comes from somewhere else.

20 years ago I had – for want of a better term – a ‘breakdown’. I won’t go into the reasons why but suffice to say, I shut down. I felt it impossible to engage with my life, my work, my relationships and ultimately myself. At that point I was referred to a counsellor and over the course of a year I looked at what it was that had me disengage from life. During this experience I produced this piece of art. What makes it very different from everything else I do is that it was completely spontaneous. I didn’t think about what I was doing. I had a very vague image in my head that I needed to get down. The image was in no way clear. Like it was in a fog or behind an obscured pane of glass. More of a feeling I guess or a half remembered dream. I found bits and pieces of board, metal, nails and paint colours that I just picked up intuitively. The black spilling over the edge of frame was intuitive. The white border on the top right side of the piece was intuitive. As was the placing of the nails, the small key (that I just happened to find) that hangs on the edge of the frame in the top right corner, the sections of wood that I used to make the frame etc. And the small square of vellum tacked in the middle on which I wrote a poem. The poem just fell out of my head and onto the paper. It is tacked onto the board back to front. And I knew, intuitively, when it was finished. I took it to my next counselling session. Now here is the thing that is absolutely key in this. My counsellor looked at it and asked me if it was ok if she said what she saw in it. I agreed and what she said to me was incredible. Everything that she described made perfect sense. It was clearly what was going on and I hadn’t even seen it. From that point on my journey back to myself began. 

So why am I telling all this? Well as I said, today is World Mental Health Day. I know from personal experience what it is to feel that pain. I also know what it is that makes the difference. The counselling gave me the opportunity to be really heard. A chance to say and express absolutely anything, with no fear of judgement. With that in place and the love and support of my wife, family and friends I was ok. So on this day and after please consider that anyone who you know or encounter that seems to be dealing with something only needs one thing to help them get back to who they really are. They need to be heard. Listen to them without judgement or agenda. You don’t have to have answers, or fix them or tell them what to do. Just authentically ‘hear’ them. If you do that you will be making a huge difference to the life of someone.