Let's discuss Art and Mental health

[dantecitesin]

LCT_m_a_d, they saying that your drawings have been therapeutic in some way it has to be one of the best compliments ever. Knowing that your art has helped others, just amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[rajillustration]

Yeah, I made a short story about a year back that was a lot about the relationship I was feeling towards art and just the general discouragement that it can be to work in an extremely competitive space ( https://tapas.io/series/Bardsong ) . Coincidentally, I wrote it when I was going through a hard time, since covid had locked us down and I was just really struggling to move on from certain aspects of my career that I needed to move on from. So it was freeing to do, and to make. To kinda say "that was a chapter in my life, it wasn't a failure, it just was." and move forward to the next chapter.

[UrMom]

Ah someone told me how to fix the spoilers thing? Not sure if anyone would really want to see my trashy mental health vents, but I may as well use the info given to me.

Everything except the last drawing was done between 2008 and 2009. The last being drawn in 2011. I drew vents before this, but these are the only ones I ever scanned to a computer. I was a really frustrated, self-loathing kid, so I drew violent and macabre stuff as an outlet. Sometimes the occasional weirdness.

Violence, gore, blood, carcasses, nudity

It's funny because the older I got the less violent my venting got, but that's probably because I went from being frustrated to just being depressed, and realizing my interested in dark subjects in fiction.

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@dantecitesin Ah, I can feel that. I was always the weird, grouchy kid, so I never held down a friend as a child. I used to get lonely a lot, but after high school (after having some friends.) I stopped caring? The coming of adulthood brought on the realization of how the world is a mess, most people are kinda awful, and paying bills is more ideal goal than having someone to hang out with. It helps that I can't relate to most people my own age anymore, everyone is married with kids, they all like to drink and watch sports, I'm not into any of that.

I hope you can beat that loneliness! I imagine it's hard during COVID, but that will hopefully go away eventually, and everyone will be able to interact again.

[dantecitesin]

The exact same thing happened to me, rajillustration. I started my series on tapas in january of 2020, I think? And just before covid started I was alredy in a really dark place and actually in reclusion. So imagine the surprise I got when the whole year seemed to correspond that same darkness. It wasnt easy. And it wasnt easy before that aswell, since being a pathologically shy person and live in a world that asks you to be social even when you're alone can be somehow really confusing and shocking. But yeah just like you said: "That was a chapter of my life".

Thanks for sharing-

[dantecitesin]

Thanks for sharing your art! It's fascinating to me how all those conflicting and abstracts feelings we have can be constructed in some way that they can turn into real and plausible things, drawings in this case. And I thing that's, sometimes, the beggining of a recovery, since we are putting faces to our fears.

I have to say that gore has never been an venting alternative for me, but I always got why it is for so many people. In my case I've always transfeered thoses complicated feelings throug narratives (I mean, I grew up being a kid who read Dostoievski so... yeah there's that). Probably because it obligate me to stand into reflexing point of view, I guess.

Thanks again for sharing, and specially for sharing your art, that I don't find trashy at all.

[sushy00]

I have misophonia, sometimes I post comics about it. But I also made this illustration that is about it.

[dantecitesin]

If I may ask sushy00, what exactly is misophonia?

Also, thanks for sharing your ilustration about mental health!

[surenlicious]

My Opalesence art series is about the portrayal of mental anguish becoming visible in one's mind space. Though not seen by the human eye, our minds can bleed too. We bleed emotion, and the wounds often are placed at places tied to that emotion.

[dantecitesin]

Beautiful Surenlicious! And a beautiful way to see mental health too!

[surenlicious]

Thank you so much, I truly appreciate hearing that!

[CursedBeasts]

those are from the last time i felt bad for long enough to draw something which was end of 2020. I had a realization about my old fandom, that it kinda hates autistic people, and also that the person who made me leave it is basically taking over the space I used to occupy there, and it made me feel very much hollow.

the first one is just, a character i like hugging an oc and comforting them. The text says "we were never wanted there". Second one is a persona-type oc having a moment.

These 3 aren't specifically vent art but I did draw them during one therapy session or another, so I suppose they can go here. WHile the therapy didn't exactly resolve everything, I am still doing much better.

these are from when things were really truly bad, end of 2018. I don't think i've posted them anywhere aside from maybe my weasyl account that i kinda use as an archive, where no one really goes. I'll put them under a spoiler because they still have the energy i put into them.

[dantecitesin]

CursedBeast, I am very sorry about your expierence with your old fandom. Hating, alone, is a innecesary act and a innecesary way of living, but hating on people in the autistic spectrum, being one of the most lovable and wholesome communities? Disgusting.

On the other hand, Im happy to hear that you are doing better and out of those toxic circles. Your art is incredible and they don't deserve it, as simple as that.

Glad that you chose to share your ilustrations here. Good luck!

[CursedBeasts]

It wasn't outright "i hate you because you're X" but every negative interaction i had was p much people being inconvenienced by me talking about my special interest. I kinda got better at listening and better at finding people who won't start yelling at me for no reason.

[Mallory]

If I'm in a bad headspace, I generally prefer to exercise over drawing. I go for a jog and go into a whole vent universe I have, which I'm never gonna write and publish 'cause it's bad (I rag on published authors (mainly middle-aged dudes 'cause it's... REALLY OBVIOUS) for having mary sue wish-fulfillment characters so... I'd never do it myself because IMO it's kinda trashy). It changes specifics but it's basically about a group of super-soldier women from an alien-war-engulfed culture where only uterus-having humans are stable enough to go through the super-soldier mod program, and it's been this way for hundreds of years so... there's been a wee bit of a culture shift. It's usually about them being snarky a f and unapologetically superior to like, everyone. I don't draw them very often because, like I said, I have no intention of ever taking this story anywhere since it's a bit of a circle-jerk, but I have drawn them a few times over the years.

[dantecitesin]

I see... hating or not hating, I feel simpatetic for you and the small fraccion of yourself that you put in this topic. Whatever those special interets are, im sure they are worthy of be respected and listened. So, again, thank you for sharing your thougts and art, CursedBeasts (If it's okay calling you that way )

[MeltingCORE]

I found a wild Void! You know I love your stuff. I'm still mad about what happened to you in the old fandom.

[dantecitesin]

I fully understand you in your Mary Sue complain

The thing is, Mallory, (besides living in a macho world) that if we could romanticize rocks, we would.
I've seen it here, and on most 'publish your comics' websites the top seller is romance. I won't go further into why that is. Because if I had to do it, I'd be writing the rest of the day. But I understand you and I like that you mention it.

In closing, I must thank you for sharing your art and brief description of your "vent universe". Have a nice day!

[MeltingCORE]

I was diagnosed at a young age with a mental health condition that was unfortunately exasperated by someone who was meant to be caring for me. Because of their refusal to originally get me help, I suffered for a long time. All of my stories and almost all of my art have pieces of me refracted through a science fiction lens. I'm not afraid to approach the "scarier" side of mental health (psychosis, hallucinations, horrid rage) because well... I actually have experienced those things. I was able to finally escape the situation I was in and am back in my homestate. I can breathe and live again. But it will take the rest of my life to heal.

Red Shift | Tapas

Red Shift: Negative Impact | Tapas

[CursedBeasts]

Thank you! one of those special interests eventually became my comic, bestia's Wrath, altho i occasionally fall off of the comic.

[dantecitesin]

Your art is just... Woah, MeltingCORE! And it's speaks a lot with the sincerity you've talked about your experiences with mental health and caring. Im, for sure, going to take a look at both of your series.

Hope you the best and only the best!