WARNING: This is Not a Refuge
For this body of work, I wanted to depict the ways in which people escape the realities of the world by showing their coping mechanisms through surreal spaces and incorporating symbolism. In these drawings, I have included one self portrait while the rest of the people in the pieces are actual close friends of mine. I chose to include these people so I could understand different ways in which people choose to escape reality and cope rather than just my own experience. I was able to talk to all of them and get a better understanding of how I could communicate these coping mechanisms. All of them somehow have a double edge sword, giving them a sense of relief as well as more problems to face. I wanted to give each piece some kind of negative connotation because of this. Detailing is another important factor in these pieces. My line work is intentional. The endless lines on these pieces are there to put emphasis on how mental health is a constant battle for some people and it’s never a straight line. The metallic silver is also placed in order to highlight specific symbols in the drawings.
I have always been inspired by nature and I wanted to include some sort of creature in each drawing to symbolize the negative counterpart of the escape. I did research on each animal and asked my friends their opinion on each to see if they thought it was an accurate representation for them. I additionally referenced Alice and Wonderland for two of the pieces, specifically the caterpillar and the forest background behind the ravens. Being able to talk to the people I was basing my art off of was extremely important to me because it brings a sense of intimacy into the pieces. I want people to understand how personal these drawings are to not only me, but others as well. It brings me the most satisfaction when the audience can find themselves within my work and relate to it, giving me a relationship with them through my art.
Procrastination
A self-portrait, Procrastination is what I would describe one of my own coping mechanisms. I tend to have a habit of ignoring things when they become stressful. When I do this, those things that I have been procrastinating always come back to me, often much worse. I have a voice in my head constantly telling me I need to face these situations rather than putting them off, which makes my stress even worse. There’s this frequent anxiety that appears because of time constraints, facing people, getting projects done, etc. Because of this, I decided to have ravens be the symbol of the negative side of this coping mechanism. Ravens are chatterboxes who mimic people, and will say things over and over again. I thought this was perfect because when I was trying to think of ways to depict the negative side of procrastination, I kept thinking about these birds screaming in my face, symbolizing all of the things that I have to get done but always seem to put off.
This piece took the longest out of the five drawings that I made, almost taking up a full month. I found lots of inspiration for the background from Alice in Wonderland. When I think of my procrastination, I will go down these weird rabbit holes and paths in order to put off the things that need to get done but are stressing me out. Whether that’s focusing on different projects, cleaning the whole house, reading a book, etc, they completely avoid the thing that needs to get done the most. This is why I chose the background that I did. Time is also something that circulates my life, and everyone else’s. It’s the thing that stresses me out most. I included an hour glass necklace that is chained around my neck to symbolize this and how we can never escape it.
This piece was done in micron-pen and posca marker on paper.
Intercourse
Intercourse is about a dear friend of mine and her coping mechanism. When she becomes stressed, she seeks out men to have intercourse with. Doing this gives her a sense of control and freedom from things she is trying to escape. However, the negative side of this is that she feels as though they take a bit of her each time. Most of them only see her as a sexual object to consume rather than a human being.
I looked up animal symbols for lust and I discovered that the goat is often used in Christian symbolism for lust. I thought this was interesting and decided to go with it. I wanted this piece to have a strong message, and chose to have the goat symbolize the negative side of intercourse by eating my friend, tearing away her flesh to expose an emptiness to her. She begins to become one with the goat, their bodies having the same chaotic markings as each other.
This piece was done in micron-pen, posca marker, and acrylic paint on paper.
Substances
Substances is about a close friend of mine who has grown a dependence on marijuana and it has become her coping mechanism. It helps her anxiety, allows her to relax, and feel comfortable within herself. However, she can’t go more than a few days without it and it’s more often than not that she is high. I feel like I have quite a few friends who have this same dependence/coping mechanism, and I wanted to create a piece about it.
Taking another symbol from Alice in Wonderland, I kept thinking about the caterpillar from that story and how it was always smoking the hookah. I thought this would be an interesting symbol to incorporate as the negative side to this coping mechanism. I made my own caterpillar and placed it above the piece with handles that are attached to the figure in the center, who is now puppeteering her. In a way this caterpillar has taken control and now she is dependent on the movements it makes her do.
This piece was created using micron-pen, posca marker, acrylic paint, twine, glue, and wood on paper.
Safe Space
Safe Space is about my close friend who uses her bed as her coping mechanism. When seeking out refuge, she will lie in bed and sleep all day to ignore everything happening around her. Because of this, she falls deeper into her depression which eats away at her energy levels.
When thinking about this concept, I kept thinking about my friend sinking into a dark ocean of nothingness. She was actually in the studio when I was coming up with the idea. I was having trouble coming up with an idea for the animal for this piece, and she was the one who actually suggested an octopus since they live in deep water. I had made pieces that have featured octopi before that she had seen, and she thought it would be interesting to include one again.
This piece was created using micron-pen, acrylic paint, and posca marker.
Distractions
This was the last piece to be finished in this body of work. Distractions is about my friend who will focus on other things to distract herself from the real task at hand. It reminded me a lot of my own procrastination and how things that need to be done become super overwhelming when we do them last minute. They grow into bigger problems when we don’t address them.
I knew my friend loved butterflies. Whenever I see something with a butterfly on it, I always think of her. I began to wonder which bugs creeped her out most. When I asked her, I was expecting the answer to be spiders but it was actually centipedes. I thought this was a super interesting and I began sketching out my idea. When thinking about distractions, I think of them to be little things when there is a bigger problem to be addressed.
This piece was created using micron-pen, ink, and posca marker on paper.