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Academic Level at Time of Creation
Senior
Date of Creation
Spring 4-15-2022
Artist Statement
Sonder- the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. -John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
I find comfort in realizing everyone’s lives are as terrible and fascinating as my own. Dealing with stigma about mania and depression has affected me throughout my interpersonal relationships- I have felt and often still feel isolated. I’ve learned a lot about myself through my research in clinical psychology and by creating art about my bipolar disorder. I’ve set myself the goal to make other mentally ill people feel less misunderstood and isolated.
In my prints I display identity, depression, and pressure through anthropomorphized figures. But, the figure never has a human head. It is replaced with an item that aids in telling the story of the individual’s mental state and complex emotions. I use unrestrained lines similar to blind contour and portray the figures in varying sizes- often large- to take up space with the viewer. My surrealist style is inspired by Mark Ryden and Kathryn Polk, using imaginative freedom to explain the figure’s story. They are alone, unobstructed by an environment except for objects they are engaging with and key momentos around them that form an idiographic synopsis of their state of being. Their isolation creates an invitation for the viewer to join in and take up space in the piece, providing the figures company.
Whether studying psychology or dealing daily with my own mental health, this body of work visually portrays mental health fluctuation in hope to create oneness and solidarity. I present an opportunity for viewers to evaluate mental illness and its impact on our fascinating, detailed, terrible, and happy lives. I encourage you to sonder and realize how simultaneously unique and analogous a stranger truly is.
Advisor/Mentor
Nicole Hand, Woody Leslie, Danielle Muzina, Mike Martin
Description
Screenprints of varying sizes
Photo Credit
Self
Recommended Citation
Mabry, Keleigh, "Sonder" (2022). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 94.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/94