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artsaveslivesinternational · 7 years ago

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Denny Reader

Art By Denny Reader

Art Saves Lives International are committed to elevating artists who use their work to create change. Denny Reader is an ASLI artist who we feel needs to be heard. With his complex art and insightful poetry, depicting experiences of his own schizophrenia, the inner world of psychosis and the ways in which Denny makes sense of this all – with elements of the mystical and the transcendence of consciousness, Denny takes you into his mind.

Here is our interview:

Please tell us what your current creative project is?

My most current project is working on promoting this Poetry, Art and Aphorisms book called ‘Wondering Whispers’ in e-book form and getting some paperback versions completed as well. I’m also getting back into making Art again, after a short break from creating, I have lots of ideas to get down to.

This is my second book of Poetry, the first one I had published with Chipmunka Publishing which is still available from their site, but in this e-book I’ve included some of my best artwork and also aphorisms that have inspired me and ones I’ve made up myself. I’m also working towards having a collection of my art exhibited at some point, all upon the theme of schizophrenia, the experience of voices and the mystical element that can feature in many people’s psychosis.

What is your biggest goal this year?

To get this book out there in the relevant places and also to get back towards an active creative practice, creating Art and Poetry regularly, hopefully creating work that I’m proud to share and build a collection towards a third book. Also to keep being active and productive, to maybe try some other art mediums like working with oils, collage and to hone in my poetry. Mostly though to get the exposure for this e-book and to get my mental health back on track, because I’ve been mostly very unwell in recent years and I aspire to finding balance within my mind and life once again.

What do you hope to achieve with your new work?

A theme in all of my work really, is to inspire and enlighten people to see things differently, truthfully, authentically and hopefully to a more open-minded perspective, to portray my experiences of schizophrenia, psychosis, mysticism and life experiences in its raw and honest form. I believe in creativity for everyone, people empowering and sharing themselves through all the various art forms genuinely, realistically and also when needed in a therapeutic manner. This way I feel we can all connect to our deeper more authentic and spiritual nature and lessen the pain and burden that human life can so often bring to so many of us.

With this book in particular, I’ve attempted to capture a sense of change and hope in the world, expressed through Poetry, Art and Aphorisms and really I just wish to share what I’ve gone through. I wish to bring some enjoyment and insight into my work and to share my inspiration in the hope that others can relate to it and gain something in their lives because of what I’ve been through.

Tell us why you do what you do?

I do what I do because I love and have great passion for Poetry, Art, Aphorisms and in all honesty I love all Art forms. I believe that Poetry, Art and other mediums literally grasp upon a greater underlying reality of life, it gives us a greater perspective, often a different and more beautiful one. It can put us in the shoes of others, portray meaning, beauty, intellect and I believe really add to our lives. I mean, what would life be like without Art, Poetry, Music, Drama, Creative Writing? I believe it connects us on a deeper level and opens us to a greater sense of life, perspective and well-being.

I thoroughly believe in it also for its therapeutic value, Poetry and Art especially, has been a God send for me over the years, a way to express myself to the world, a way to vent, a way to translate experiences that I would not be able to in any other way. The process in itself is cathartic, even if I didn’t share any of my work, I feel that it would still have great value to myself for its ability to transmute, transform and express the mind, the emotions and experiences into a solid form. To put into form, that which otherwise would remain stagnant within the soul and mind.

Tell us about your process in creating your recent work?

Well all the content in this book, is a collection of my best work from the last five years. When I’m in a flow of Poetry writing I can sometimes write two or three a day and ideas just flood my mind, often too many to record. I often can’t sleep because of seemingly important creative ideas, themes, concepts, images and visions come into my mind regularly, in the past at times it has stopped me from sleeping and I’ve had to learn to shut this creative force out, so I can get on and do other things, like sleeping and living daily life.

Much of my inspiration comes from my sensitivity to things, from nature, from music, people and I like to think from my within myself and my soul. Sometimes when writing a poem, I take a notepad out to a quiet place in nature and sit with my feelings to see what comes out and through, many other times I note down ideas in my notepad and later return to encapsulate upon it when at home and in the quiet. I would say being still as one can in the mind, is often the best way that ideas come through and meditation can help greatly with this.

My recent Artwork, is largely inspired by my latest episode of psychosis and OCD, which has really been a struggle to get through. Voices, paranoia and intrusive thoughts have really crippled me in recent years, but I’m learning to deal with this most recent collection of symptoms and making Art and Poetry to express this.

Tell us about your past work…

Much of my past work, the Poetry and Art that I’ve done and the Aphorisms, have mainly been inspired by my experiences of Psychosis and Mysticism. Most of the content of my creative work is depicting these various experiences, of themes to do with my spirituality directly relating to psychosis and the shamanic and mystical phenomenon that I’ve gone through, ie – having outer body experiences, communicating with various spirits etc. – Much of this could be considered delusional, but I take the shamanic stance on these experiences, they are so real to me, more than daily life, they give me intense meaning in my world and have formed my outlook and philosophy in which I live my life by . Much of it also is just about my take on the trials of being a human being in a fast paced competitive culture and how I deal with my schizophrenia whilst also dealing with this mad world.

I’ve made a previous poetry book to this one, it was published in 2011 by Chipmunka Publishing, it contains only poetry and is titled ‘Inside the Outside’ and is still available to buy through the Chipmunka website and through Amazon as an e-book. Other than this, I’ve had art exhibitions in the past and have been writing Poetry and Creating Art on and off since I was a child, though I do go through periods where I struggle to get the motivation to carry through my ideas.

Does your art help you in any way, therapeutically?

Definitely it does, I believe it helps me reach higher states of consciousness, to escape at least temporarily from the binding of the human ego and all the pain associated with life. It gives me a vehicle in which to share with the world, to transmute my feelings and experiences into a concrete and solid form. Personal development comes to mind when thinking of creativity, the ability and means to express oneself can help tremendously in one’s personal sense of well-being and interpersonal development. As keeping a diary can help a person realise their true feelings and see more sense in how they think and feel, so too can Art help a person in being more expressed, self-content and in many ways more self-actualised and resolved.

Has your art saved your life in any way?

I wouldn’t say it has actually saved my life, but it has definitely helped to make it. It has made it fuller, realer, more clear, it has paved the way for me to have an outlet in this world and life, without it, I would feel ‘boxed in’, stagnant, blocked and without a voice. Art certainly enhances my life tremendously, my Art and Poetry has given me great meaning and has had an enormous cathartic influence within me.

I still have tons of new stuff every so often to process and work through, with my condition as it is, but Art in all its various forms gives me a vehicle in which to process and like I’ve said, to transmute it, express it and hopefully help resolve myself much more.

Which artists do you feel inspired by right now?

I feel mostly inspired by musicians as of late, I constantly have music playing in my room where I work and often have music for all types of moods and emotions. I love rock and some pop for feeling more energetic, chill out music for a more softer mood, like world music and singer/songwriter tunes and I’m always playing a song in my head as I go by my daily activities.

Coming to Art, I will forever love and be inspired by the artwork of Marc Chagall, with his dreamy and colourful paintings, Dali and similar other psychedelic artists, for their transcendental affect on the psyche. I love fantasy Art too and am actually very inspired right now by computer games such as Skyrim, one of the Elder Scroll games for the xbox . The landscapes, characters, monsters, music and whole experience of some console games can be so enthralling and inspiring, they can really give you a taste of a fantasy world, a world unlike our own, free from the normal constraints of human life.

Do you hope to create change with your art?

I hope to bring about more awareness with my mental health campaigning and many of the issues in my work are of a mental health nature, but also on a deeper, spiritual level, I adhere to bring understanding, compassion and loving kindness to my work wherever I can, compassion and understanding of the human condition in its myriad and many forms. I also do like at times to put a political edge upon what I create, I feel that on a spiritual path and being an artist, that we shouldn’t shy away from expressing our political views and the injustices we see in this World, in fact I would say that in this position of being an artist, that it is our place to express our experiences and inspire others to see things in another hopefully broader more truthful light, or to see things in a different way if we can.

Do you have any particular causes and campaigns your art is in aid of?

Yes definitely, I feel my Art and Poetry at least portrays what it’s like to have mental health issues, to bring awareness to people upon psychosis and what this can be like, but also hopefully on a more existential level too, I like to think that I bring spirituality and meaning to my work, not in a dogmatic sense, but hopefully on a deep level on what it’s like to be human and deeply feel things in this crazy world.

I am very passionate about expressing my experiences in an authentic manner, whether it’s positive or negative, expressed with a dark twist or in the light of something spiritual. I like to think that through Art and Poetry I can give an accurate and descriptive take on schizophrenia and also it’s shamanic element, but more deeply, just to express what it is like being a sensitive, feeling human being in a harsh and competitive society, to express the injustices and rawness of being alive here in the 21st century.

In the past I’ve done campaigning on Environmental issues and in mental health, these subjects I’m very passionate about, I like to bring an mind opening, cathartic, therapeutic and compassionate stance in my Poetry and in my Art I love to express the raw and also sometimes brutal experiences of mental illness. I love to use lots of colours in my Art and generally just be authentic with my experiences, to hopefully open the minds of the viewers and give people something to relate to and/or be made aware of.

What are your plans for future work?

To just keep creating mostly, I’ve got two other book projects in mind, one to make a self -help and exploratory book upon psychosis, it’s various cultural perspectives and also various anonymous personal accounts from people about what helped them upon their own road to recovery and exploring psychosis with all it’s fascinating phenomena.

(If anyone reading this is interested in contributing with lived experience of psychosis, then please do get in touch.)

The other book project, a long term goal is to write out a personal story of my breakdown and ongoing experiences of schizophrenia, I think this will be a cathartic process and also something people with similar life experiences and those interested will be able to relate to.

Mostly to keep making Art and get back into writing Poetry regularly again, hopefully towards another Poetry book as well. I’d also like to exhibit in an art gallery with the series of Artwork about psychosis that I’ve done, but yeah, just generally to keep creating, keep an active practice of staying motivated and inspired and put that into motion, regularly finding the energy to keep making and creating.

Please read: Denny Reader talks to ASLI about his schizophrenia and using his creativity, saying “Its gives me a purpose and a platform to share my ideas and myself with the world around me”.

Amazon link to Poetry, Art and aphorisms e-book ‘Wondering Whispers’ Chipmunka Paperback book – ‘Inside the Outside.’

Youtube Channel Facebook Twitter

Facebook Artists page

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Artist of the Month Denny Reader Tells ASLI About his New Book of Poetry, Art and Aphorisms ‘Wondering Whispers’ Art Saves Lives International are committed to elevating artists who use their work to create change. Denny Reader is an ASLI artist who we feel needs to be heard.

#art #art saves lives #art saves lives international #art therapy #ASLI #creative writing #Denny Reader #mental health #mental health awareness #mental illness #poet #Poetry #poetry and mental health #psychosis #schizophrenia #Stigma #visual art #Wondering Whispers #writing

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artsaveslivesinternational · 8 years ago

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Jade Bryant

Visual artist Jade Bryant, 25 from Devon in the UK is part of the ASLI team as our Arts and Mental Health Campaigner & Feature Writer, every campaign we ask our team members and ambassadors if they would like to contribute to our publication. Jade chose to contribute a visual art piece on the social stigmatisation of mental health and here is what she had to say about it:

What motivated you to deal with your chosen submission subject?

I use art as a means of self help – mental health therapy and as a coping mechanism for my own mental health issues: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Dissociative identity disorder (DID) and as a way of raising awareness about mental health as a whole. Having personally suffered a lot of judgement inside and outside of the mental health system for my disorders, my chosen subject is with the aim to express my personal feelings of how I have been made to feel since ‘coming out’ as mentally unwell and being open about my journey to recovery and how it has been responded to by with a range of reactions from a variety of people: strangers, mental health professionals, old friends, family, ex-partners, the list goes on… (and not always in a good way). My motivation stems from my disappointment in how society and the media have painted the mentally unwell and how that affects our treatment, services available to us and all in all, our rights as equal human beings.

How Do You See Me? – By Jade Bryant

What are your present and future goals for your art?

My present goals stand as they always stand, to continue to raise awareness of mental health issues and to highlight how art can be not only a brilliant self therapy method, but how it can also create change and build an understanding of important issues that need to be heard and seen. It has the ability to bring people together and I would love to eventually set up ASLI based workshops in my home area of Devon, as a member of the team, I think running arts and crafts workshops with the idea of mental health awareness at the centre of it, can help a range of people (especially with lengthy waiting times for therapy and entering the system and the amount of cuts we are seeing to services in the area) I also want to start the idea of regular mental health ‘drops’ – anonymous, free, little self help guides, art prints, and crisis team details and other information in a little package that can be dropped around different locations that may be useful to people.

Have you experienced any form of discrimination; and if so what was it based on and how did you deal with this?

Being young, and being female, I can’t say I haven’t experienced any form of discrimination – as that would be untrue. Ever since I was young I have felt the pressure of having to live up to an unrealistic stereotype of what a ‘girl/ ‘woman’ should be. I have been on the receiving end of shocking conversations with some males that believe they are entitled to my body, just because. From what I can remember most about feeling discriminated against in terms of my sex, most of my mind wanders back to when I have been in working roles. At the age of 12/13 I was a waitress, where I was regularly greeted by derogatory comments from customers, my own boss often told me I was only good as a ‘pretty face’. When working as a street charity fundraiser, I was part of a team that would be situated in different locations each day. My team was 5 females (including myself) and one team leader who was male. All of my team, briefed me on the ‘tricks of the trade’ – one of which being – because I was young and female, I should dress somewhat ‘attractively’ and in their own words – from the women mostly, they told me ‘short skirts and shorts, low cut tops, your best bet for sign ups is to target young, single looking, single parent possible, males’ – I didn’t stick to this advice, to me, I was working for a charity, why would I need to pander to the discriminatory stigma of my gender in order to make them money? Surely, the charity would speak for itself; this is again where I faced more discrimination, doing the role required constantly trying to stop people going about their day – which often lead to a lot of rude comments, abuse and rejection. I found a lot of people would rather judge my quality of life via the role I was doing, rather than the cause I was doing it for. Eventually, I was told to leave the job for not meeting my targets, which I found odd considering I had met them consistently, each day. I eventually found that my team was over it’s limit, and they had hired someone who already had a previous relationship with one of the team members who had been working with said team for over a year. I felt that it was for the best that I didn’t pursue the job, the pressure was unreal and the cause always seemed shielded by a capitalistic ideology.

What are your opinions on what causes discrimination?

I think a multitude of factors contribute to what causes discrimination, lack of education, misinformation, media propaganda, etc. School education could be a huge area for improvement, I don’t remember us being properly taught about anything to do with discrimination in a modern context. It almost felt as though we were still taught under the guise of ‘if a boy pulls your hair and hurts you, its a sign that he likes you!’ – let alone talking broadly on the subject of race at all, it always felt as though we were being taught in a way that already made us segregated from the people and situations we were learning about. I remember education in regard to this matter being abrupt, short and very absolute, in a black and white manner of thinking – as if there were no grey areas. But of course, there are always grey areas.

The media does no real effort to help lessen discrimination, if anything it would be more aptly suited to say that it effectively contributes to more discrimination than it does hinder any. I say this because daily we see news stories clearly showing the discrimination towards genders, ethnicity, races, cultures and many more. We see young, white males, clearly guilty of sexual abuse crimes walk free after a reduced sentence – yet some black people are losing their lives for driving home from work…

What do you do to actively stand against discrimination and have you ever had to intervene as a witness to it?

I do my best to always stand up for whomever may need it, may that be a stranger on the street, or someone I have known for years. Aside from using my art and writing as means of actively standing against discrimination; I have been witness to quite a few examples of discrimination in my life, there have been times where I have intervened, there have been times where I have not. But all have had reason. I have stood up for my female friends in situations where males have called them out in a derogatory tone, or tried to be to hands on when they have made clear indication of not wanting their personal space invaded. As a team member to the ASLI team, mostly dealing in the area of mental health awareness and advocacy, I would say that part of my stand against discrimination is by use of participating in issues like this one, as well as using my own artwork to try to further understanding of social issues.

What are your opinions on labels and stereotypes?

I have always felt that stereotypes are damaging to our overall humanity. They very rarely regulate positive connotations, and mostly always create a dramatised, fictitious idea of who people are. I live in quite a rural area of Devon, where impressions of any ethnicities other than our own are quite negative. Despite the fact cultural diversity isn’t particularly booming here. The media has always played a role, I believe, in segregating people via how they look, act or what they believe in. When we label people, or stereotype anyone – we are setting ourselves apart from our fellow human beings. It creates a scapegoat for the media to mislead and misinform us – shifting blame onto innocent people. Anything that further drives a wedge between us and our fellow human beings, usually at the cost of lives and people’s well being, is not something I believe to be useful or good for humanity. Having been regularly ‘stereotyped’ in school and growing up, I have felt only a small manner of what that sort of segregation feels like; and it’s usually painful, disappointing, and tiring and isolating. Always with the common jokes, and typical insults that would ensue from a base ‘stereotype’ of a certain type of person, usually always an outside opinion formed solely on what a person looks like.

What are your opinions on national identity and in your opinion does nationalism create or deter discrimination?

In and ideal world, I would ideally love to be able to just say ‘I am a citizen of the world’. I don’t believe we need to have ‘borders’ – people should be allowed free movement, I don’t believe that the very few who made those rules that stopped that motion, should be able to speak for the millions who also share this planet. I do believe that nationalism adds to discrimination and often fuels it, but I wouldn’t say that it is the root cause/creator. There is nothing wrong with having pride in ones country, or where one is from, I just choose to celebrate that as a human being that lives on planet earth, not Jade Bryant, English citizen of the United Kingdom. It becomes an issue, when that pride eventually rolls down the generations and misleads them into a huge sense of entitlement, that entitlement – with a little help from the media adding to racial stereotyping and scape goating of whole religions, creates a pool of people who have been misinformed about their own history, and their place in it. Quite simply, Stanhope said it best:

““Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in.”

― Doug Stanhope”

What social privileges do you have? For example: are you white, able bodied/minded, a man, rich, heterosexual, thin… etc.

In many ways according to the question, I am very privileged, I’m young, thin, and white. I can’t say I’m able bodied/minded because I do have a range of health and mental health issues. I do not come from wealth at all, and am nowhere near what could be considered rich. I see myself as privileged in mostly small ways, I have close friends who are incapable of doing things I may sometimes find no problem, so I often remind myself of this – and with that it makes me appreciate the things I can manage, because even though they may seem as small to some, like just going out to the shops or speaking to someone in the street, those things are things that some people would give anything to be able to do without a second thought. I’ll admit, for myself, because of my DID – it can often be a mixed bag of whether I can even achieve those seemingly small every day tasks. Some days I’ll even surprise myself with what I have accomplished (sometimes because someone has had to remind me I actually did do them!) And other days, it will be very obvious that I just can’t seem to get my body to move, or find the motivation to even speak out loud.

How does social privilege affect our world in your opinion?

In multiple ways; there are so many types of privilege that affect our world that it is difficult to narrow it into one answer. Privilege; in any meaning of the word – continues to affect our world through the continued segregation and misunderstanding towards certain people. It hinders our progress as a collective humanity by creating insignificant differences amongst us. I feel it all comes down to the same root issue really, keeping people in a state of opposal to a certain ideology, group of people, politics, etc, etc. Privileged groups usually hold power, that power usually enables them to form laws, rules and other regulations, but it also creates a hierarchy, the group in power privilege from the under classes work, i.e. capitalism. Thus said, the people at the top of the ladder hone the most benefits, but usually at the cost of some sort of morality. Privilege is a phenomena that cannot work under the guise of equality, it needs inequality in order to perpetuate itself and continue to succeed.

Have you ever denied your own privilege due to feelings of guilt or misunderstanding?

I have denied my own privilege, countless times, but not from feelings of guilt or misunderstanding – but because in each moment I have done this, I have chosen to. I have chosen to deny my own privilege, for the sake of someone who may not have that same one, simply because I feel it human of me to do so. In the simplest of terms, to me, even being able to eat a meal is a privilege – there have been times in my youth, where I was close with a person who didn’t have that much of a benefit, so often times when she and I were hanging out together listening to music in my room, and mum called my name for tea (she would often deny her own privilege too in the same way) – I’d often ask my friend if she would like it instead, not because I felt guilty for her – but because I could relate to her in some ways – I’d seen brief instances of her home life, I could empathise. I knew I had my mum in my secret corner most of the time – my friend didn’t have that safety net in her house, and while I knew I couldn’t go in and give her parents a lesson in parenting, I decided the least I could do was help her in the small ways I could. I never took pity on her, she was my equal, and my friend. I’ll admit on the other hand there may have been times where I have denied my own privilege out of assumed guilt, but having two personality disorders often plays a role in the reason for that guilt. Often times, I haven’t felt ‘worthy’ of anything, so you deny yourself even your own privilege out of spite of not feeling as though you deserve it. This isn’t a self deprecatory act more so than it is an act of numbness.

Do you feel social privilege should be taught at school and if so why and how young?

That is an interesting question, but given some thought, yes, I do think it should be taught in schools, along with more information about mental health. These things make up our society, and inevitably affect it. I was the butt of many socially privileged ‘jokes’ back in school, even in primary. So I believe, it should at least be taught as early as primary school (possibly pre school) in some cases, but in an informative manner. What I really believe, is that parents should be functional in teaching their children these essential life skills too, as caregivers, children often lead by the example their parents are setting, watch how they interact and copy it, and so on – teaching parents how to teach their children, should also be a priority. It is quite sad that we even have to ask should this be taught, it is sad that privilege does what it does. It speaks for a changing world when someone has more, and they instead of sharing or bettering the world around them, decide to barter more of it away at the risk of their human counterparts. 10. Have you ever experienced social stigmatisation and if so what was it based on and how did you deal with this?

Many times. Mostly while I have been under my local mental health team. I have had to attend countless meetings with the head of my local team and other officials because of my assumed ‘behaviours’ when communicating with some of the staff. I was recently sent to a final warning meeting about my behaviour based on one interaction with a receptionist. Who I was told, took my behaviour ‘personally’ when I was in a moment of clear crisis, and it also came to light that the team had proceeded with this meeting without any evidence of what I was supposed to have done that violent or threatening. Suggesting they can take the word of a non medically trained member of staff, working in a first point of contact for people suffering with issues in their mental health role, over the word of the person navigating the system. All this says to me is that there is a clear imbalance of equality. This latest meeting threatened to cut off all of my mental health care, therapy, medication, and more – somehow I don’t feel that power imbalance to be particularly just. Especially when I have tried to raise my hand and complain about their treatment since day one, yet I seem to be the one still getting threatening letters with police action. I must reiterate, I have never once threatened a member of staff or been violent towards anyone in the profession. I lose my patience sometimes, like most people do, and most people would, trying to navigate these systems and their rules. Because not only that, but I am going through consistent what could be a ‘classic example’ of social stigma, still within the realms of the mental health system. I stand at a mere 5”4 (ish) and weigh a humble 7 stone. I’m aware my BMI states ‘underweight’. The reason I lost so much weight was for multiple reasons – but – I am not unwell. So – when I had to send off my assessment to the DWP and had to have supporting evidence, I asked my mental health team for any copies of documents they had of mine. I was sent quite a few I’d seen before, and interestingly, one I hadn’t been sent – but should have been. When I read the assessment write up letter that had been wrote, in the space that had the header ‘Diagnosis:’ he had written, “Anorexia nervosa” Something never touched upon in any former assessment or GP appointment, or in the specific assessment that he was writing of– because I am not anorexic. Ever since this, every person dealing with my mental health care has been pushing this idea. I’m constantly asked about my weight, what I eat, If I don’t eat to punish myself, and every single time I say the same thing: ‘I’m not anorexic, I have been this weight for over a year and continue to eat as much as I feel I want to – believe me, if there’s food around that I like, it won’t be there for long” and not once have the mental health team weighed me, so to make that huge assumption is just amazing really. Instead of engaging on what I actually went into the system for, they would rather push diagnosis’ on me that I have never had, or don’t have. Given that I have never spoken to them about any real issues with my weight, they have never weighed me, or spoken to me about this ‘hunch’ they have had prior to any of this, not one thing to suggest it should be something they would look into – the only conclusion I’m led back to is that when some people look at me, all they see is my size, and this, this is a form of social stigma. Landing people into categories of severe mental and physical illness based on something as simple as looking at me, yet never even asking me a thing. Furthering that this is their own perception of ‘beauty/healthy/whatever’ gone askew, they have taken their personal opinion on how I look, and tried turning it into something ‘diagnosable’. I am still dealing with this type of stigmatisation from my mental health team, who just won’t seem to drop the subject no matter how much I press it.

What are your opinions on political powers and world leaders using stigmatisation against certain groups to further their own agendas, such as with Muslims, Black people, LGBTQ individuals, mentally ill and disabled people?

I don’t believe it to be completely misjudged to believe that our government uses clear propaganda to influence our opinions on certain groups of people, in order to keep their agendas satisfied and the public on their side. They often portray the mentally ill to be ‘dangerous and violent’ and there are countless news articles that are worded to just that affect, often with very little mention as to who the person actually is. They also misuse words in order to create a strong picture in the public’s mind of disharmony and inequality, such as: the rhetoric currently being debated that Donald Trump is unfit to rule as President because he has ‘mental health issues’ – no, they know every word they write has the power to be influential, and the people in power of running these articles, and writing them, are ruled by that very same agenda, they drop in a couple of words and a huge chunk of society reads no further, because they take what they see as truth (call it an ignorance in convenience) – thereby; creating a clear discord between society, and people who may be mentally unwell – which is what my current painting for this submission aims to reflect. That the mentally unwell are often and always portrayed in society as ‘monsters’ ‘something to fear’ ‘beware of’ etc. The symbolism of the spider, I took brief audience interaction from – I basically wrote up a poll asking what people feared the most out of three or four of the most commonly feared and dangerous animals on the planet. Quite obviously, arachnids won. With that information – I decided to use it for symbolism. The spider, wearing a skull as a body, represents the stretched truth of how we, the mentally unwell, are made out to look, the skull adding to the dramatised sensationalism that is also made from us. An example of this is often found in TV and Film, using mental illnesses as characteristic horror-thriller traits, often highly misunderstood and lacking in grounded reality, one of the most current examples of this type of thing would be M. Night Shyamalan’s recent horror-thriller’Split’ – a film about a person with DID who kidnaps some young women, but also has an alter who apparently can alter his body chemistry to such a point where he can climb walls like Spiderman. But, Overall, my opinion on political powers using any group of people to further their own means and ends, is just plain evil. It isn’t done to help raise a healthy and truthful awareness of any of these groups, if anything it is almost always aimed at creating more divides, that you can usually trace back to a political agenda.

Do you support or take part in any anti-stigma organisations or charities and if so which ones and why?

I support a range of charities that aid in anti-stigma movements. Art Saves Lives being the main one! But I also support the charities: Mind, PDAN, Rethink, Project Semicolon. I also regularly participate in the Time To Talk events as best as I can. I have been a supporter of the UAF movement for some time now. I also support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. As well as these things I support the use of service dogs for people with mental illnesses – and feel this is something that we should better help research and fund. I support these causes and many others for simply the reason that I believe people should be treated equally, we all deserve the same rights as one another. Most of these organisations are set up or founded under suffering loss, or some kind of imbalance within society, or a lack of something that people who need it – cannot access. So all of these organisations are set up to strive to bring equality and understanding to everyone, and to be able to give people who are in need, the help they deserve, or to just simply educate people, give people a voice, so that they can be heard. These things are important for us as a society within the workings of the media, and our own government, we are flooded with biased information that misleads people’s opinions of their fellow man, under false pretences, and creates more of a divide between people, so these types of organisation serve to give the truth a platform, and with that, it brings people like myself and so many others – hope.

In your own words please tell us how you feel the arts and creativity can further help to empower, communicate and educate people with regards to discrimination, privilege and stigmatisation?

Art is a language that anyone can communicate in, it is always open to interpretation and I believe that those are imperative qualities that make the arts and creativity such brilliant methods of education and communication about such important issues that need more awareness and education. Art of any kind, be it music, painting, drawing, animation, photography, etc, they all allow us to see what the artist intends, as well as what we interpret, with that comes the ability to create in ways that do in fact, educate people. People can tell or hide as much as they want through creativity – but still allow themselves the freedom to have a voice about such subjects that they may be feeling, be that stigmatisation, discrimination or privilege.

Check out Jades other interviews for previous campaigns:

Artist Jade Bryant is fiercely tackling her mental illness with art and in the process is changing the world’s awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Welcome Jade Bryant as ASLI’s Newest Team Member

Artist Jade Bryant Tackles Money and Elitism with her Visual Art

If you would like to find out more about Jade please follow these links:

Facebook Page

Website

Jade Bryant Art Shop

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ASLI Team Member Jade Creates a Piece of Art to Highlight the Stigmatisation of Mental Illness Visual artist Jade Bryant, 25 from Devon in the UK is part of the ASLI team as our Arts and Mental Health Campaigner & Feature Writer, every campaign we ask our team members and ambassadors if they would like to contribute to our publication.

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