Context of Practice: August 2017

ESSAY PLAN

What I want to talk about:

Stigmatisation of mental health
Mental health stereotypes: representation of people with mental illnesses, stereotypical imagery associated with mental health (head in hands)
Where these stereotypes have come from: TV, films etc
Misunderstanding of mental health issues and misinformation
How illustrators/illustration are helping to break the stigma on mental health in a positive way; but also how some particular illustrations are still very misinformed

Illustrators tackling the subject of mental health:

Ruby Elliott
Gemma Correll
Polly Nor
Marissa Betley
Siobhan Gallagher

Introduction/first paragraph:

At the beginning of my essay I want to speak briefly about common stereotypes and misconceptions about mental health, before starting to talk about the illustration side of things. I want to discuss where these stereotypes came from, and what are the common misinterpretations we see of people with mental illnesses, and how the stigma surrounding mental health prevents and discourages people to seek help.

Second paragraph:

I then want to go on to discuss further where the stereotypes have come from, such as particular films, TV shows or books which portray mental health in a negative way.

Common misconceptions of people suffering with mental illnesses:

They’re weak; this one can be extremely damaging as it makes people feel uncomfortable/embarrassed about asking for help, and this is even more of a problem for mental illness within males.
They’re unpredictable an violent: we see this a lot within TV and film. With a simple google search you can see there is a whole host of films based around or including the subject of mental health, but with a closer look at the movies main themes you can see that there is a large proportion which revolve around violence and in a lot of cases murder. A lot of the time this is used as a horror/shock factor but it can be seriously damaging when it comes to public stereotypes.

QUOTES

Research has shown that many people get their information about mental illness from the mass media (Wahl, 2004)

Studies show that not only are individuals with mental illness less likely to commit violent crimes, they’re actually more likely to be victimised (Fawcett, 2015)

Third paragraph

I will then talk about the main theme of my essay, which is illustrators tackling the subject of mental health within their work and illustrations based on this subject. I want to focus mainly on people that create work from their own personal experiences, as I think these are usually the most accurate representations. These kind of illustrations get people talking about mental illness, and they shed a light on real-life battles people face everyday. As well as this, they can also be very informative for people

RUBY ELLIOT:

Produces raw, honest and relatable illustrations based around quite dark elements of mental health, and some of the more taboo and ‘less palatable’ aspects of it; usually adding in humour. Many of her illustrations also come alongside wording, which makes her illustrations not only relatable, but also very informative.
Just released a book “It’s All Absolutely Fine’ which touches on a wide variety of mental illnesses, and her own personal struggles.
She has a huge online following, and this is where she posts a lot of her work which is the perfect platform to educate young people on mental health

QUOTES

‘Using an image or illustration to communicate distress that might otherwise be hard to verbalise or pin down is therefore a powerful tool, both in a personal sense for the artist, and on a larger scale to help others understand more about conditions’ (Elliot, 2017
‘One of the most brilliant and special things for me is hearing from people who have started drawing or making artwork about their own struggles after seeing mine’ (Elliott, 2016)
‘drawing can act as a release’ (Elliot, 2017)
‘This gradual normalisation and acceptance of mental illness into the public forum is a step in the right direction in terms of how we view it as a society.’ (Elliot, 2017)

GEMMA CORRELL:

Another artist who uses illustration and humour to portray struggles with mental illness, who draws from experience as well.
Mental Health America asked the illustrator to produce a small series of illustrations as part of it’s Mental Health Month campaign
She uses character design very prominently which makes the illustrations feel more personal.

‘I think that it’s a lot more prevalent than people realise, I know that I would have felt a little better as an anxiety-ridden teenager if I knew that I wasn’t completely alone in my fears.’

‘I honestly think that humour can be a saviour at times of distress or, if you just live with a constant level of anxiety and depression like I do,’

MARISSA BETLEY

I’ve seen firsthand how serious and debilitating these illnesses can be. They can be remarkably devastating. While professional help is key, what’s equally important is unwavering support from family and friends. I thought, if I could just find a real human way to raise greater awareness then maybe I could help break down the stigmas surrounding mental illness that are preventing people from getting the help they need. Maybe the project could even save lives.

soon started receiving emails from people all over the world: some shared personal stories, some thanked me for my work, and some asked how the could help promote the project.

I hope the project will help erase the stigma surrounding mental illness that prevents so many people from getting the help and support they need,

While professional help is key, what’s equally important is unwavering support from family and friends.

‘HEAD-CLUTCHER’

‘People with mental health problems don’t look depressed all the time’

‘eight in 10 people told us head-clutchers don’t show how it feels to have a mental health problem’

I feel like this may not make sense to anyone apart from me ! As I have been really struggling with this essay I thought it was sensible to make a really detailed plan of what I wanted to write about, including quotes and illustrators, to make it as easy as possible for me when it came to actually writing the essay. I'm happy with this plan and it's made it much simpler for me to map out my essay, so now I can just get to writing !

WHAT I NEED TO DO NEXT:

look at more sources & articles based on my topic, and pick out some key quotes I could use within my essay
try and look for a couple more illustrators who have based their work on the topic of MH. maybe find some negative examples?
start my visual journal!! i need to find a good way of linking my practical work to my essay well; should i do my own take on drawing which represent living with mental illness?
look at a few books, particularly Ruby Elliot's book 'It's All Absolutely Fine' and a book by Matthew Johnstone called 'I had a black dog' which depicts what it's like living with depression through words and illustrations
find one more point of interest...maybe look at imagery we often associate with mental health: people pictures with their head in their hands