Inside Madness: Painted Words
Stories of people who suffer from mental Illness.
“I awoke in a small white room, devoid of any
windows or furniture and with padded walls. I was totally disorientated and couldn’t think where I was. A strong fluorescent light shone down on me. I
looked down at myself. I was dressed in a paper nightdress.”p.122, Scarred, by Sophia Laguna
My studio walls scream
and shout words from these stories. These walls would be bare without the
inspirational literature which is the catalyst for this research. The importance of this research is
universal.When creating these
artworks, although many of them deal with sad, angry and violent themes, often
and almost always, there are as many good, safe and quiet themes which counter
the bad ones. Everyone needs a safe
haven whether it be in their mind or a real physical place.My intention in the
creation of these art works is to use the universal language of art to increase
people’s awareness through the presentation of strong emotive and expressive
paintings.These paintings have
their origin in poetry/ non-fiction and fiction. I emphasize mark-making and
the use of thick intuitive strokes, to express these subjects and their
journeys narrated in the inspirational writings.
Robert Frost said “Every poem
begins with a lump in your throat”. The stories which I choose to paint must
embrace this attitude.
“He dripped, splattered and swept the paint, like the untamable forces he wished to depict. In this somber,
dramatic work….He arrived at the freest way of painting he was
ever to achieve,even in his later development. Egill Jacobsen, Danish artist
