Abstract

This work is re-telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I used it to reframe my mental health challenges and history of masking/closeting my symptoms and identity as trans non-binary. Now, an empowered Little Red Riding Hood (in goth style) saves the wolf from a life of hiding his true self. .

Painting supports my recovery in many ways. It calms me down, helps me focus and relieves stress. Creating art is a tool I use to cope with my anxiety by giving me an outlet to express myself. My artwork is about combining the unique parts of the recovery process. Each piece represents a different component of my sober journey. The clinical and emotional lessons that overlap and eventually are intertwined to form a unique picture of my recovery.

I came from a seed and grew to tree. From the ground to the sky my branches grew high. Full of branches with lots of leaves, to clean the air for people to breath. With every spring I get greener and tell its fall when I get to show my true colors. When my leaves fall, they lay together. Some become trees, some just lay and cover. I stand and wait all winter, tell its spring when I get bigger. More branches full of leaves, and a little taller. With each year, we people like the tree don't stop growing. We have nice days and bad ones all year long.

My painting represents that moment of clarity that presents hope and the strength to accept help and move forward on the path to full recovery.

This is an artistic expression self-acceptance in recovery. One side of the painting has a black background with white ripples of paint and the other side has a while background with black ripples. The two side combined is an artistic reflection of my totality, accepting the light and darkness that is me.

Acrylic painting depicting the struggle of being born into an addicted family and growing up in addiction, becoming addicted and finally finding the path to recovery and connection to people. The puzzle piece with two people hugging was the piece that was missing in my life. I had not known true connection in my family because of addiction. Later I could not connect because of my own addiction and the fact that I did not know what connection was. In recovery I slowly learned these things for the first time. .

This artwork was created over several months in an Intentional Creativity class called Artifact. It is all about learning to live with meaningful intention.

This hand drawn mandala piece is called "The Peace of Change". What inspired me to create this is the different emotions that come by becoming sober. The different shades of color within the sections represent the different intensity of emotions felt when navigating life in recovery. I chose bright colors to represent the blooming and beautiful change from the dull lifeless and depressive state of addiction.

I created this piece with watercolors and neurographic lines. I was inspired by all the layers that make up the journey in recovery, it is never linear and is made up of so many moving and healing parts. Yet, through all of the chaos of the journey we have the ability to make something beautiful.

Throughout my life, I have struggled with various forms of mental health issues. In these paintings and drawings, I have fused my own inner experiences with my work. Amongst my diagnoses, Bipolar I have been extremely influential by way of the stigma surrounding it, and the vigorous treatments that have spanned the majority of my lifetime. The pieces themselves, focus heavily on graphs of Bipolar I, mixed with illustrations of the molecular compounds that make up many of the ten medications needed to sustain a balanced life. The disease is ever-changing, from low bouts of depression to extreme manic states.

I paint for the love of painting. I paint to keep my mind at ease. I paint to help me walk with the pain of my today or yesterday. This painting was the beginning of a new series that more than any other body of work, feels like my insides. A sophisticated view of how simple paint is and how descriptive it can be just being paint. Much like finding recovery and mindfulness, when you find that place that shows you, you are not broken, you just are this for right now. It’s the public and private me. I’ve been in recovery for almost three years now and the work is getting better and better.

The hardest lesson I had to accept was no one was coming to save me. I had to learn how to save myself.

This artwork is inspired by freedom. The freedom to paint whatever comes to mind. Painting image over image, color over color, combining various images and depth to create a single artwork. This is a pivotal piece, for me, because this is how I discovered my style of painting as well as how I cope with my life.

A multi-layered, acrylic and oil painting on canvas started as an abstract image in blacks/reds, made during a fentanyl fueled psychosis after a manic period. Re-painted after recovery with oil and acrylics in abstract colors more representative of the newfound path to happiness I had found.

This painting is my reminder to rest. My mental health is at its best when I take breaks. The chair represents this. The background represents how loud my head can be. As well as how easy it is to let my mind take over. As seen by the green and brown slowly taking over.

My vision of this drawing starts with the roots grounded in what every staff member at rehab has instilled in me, as well as most of my friends I have made while in treatment. Turning my hand grasping for a A.A. coin being given through my recovery here. Thank you.

This piece is an abstract representation of the soul rising from the depths of despair, hopelessness, darkness, and pain that active addiction creates. Once I began my recovery journey, I realized my soul had been dying, it was broken, dark, burned, on fire, ash. As I healed emotionally, mentally, and physically, my spirituality grew, my soul became whole again, and my light began to shine brightly. In recovery, I took that control back for myself, and learned to recognize what is in my power to control and what is not. Just as fire is a natural element, a force that cannot truly be controlled, so is the world around me.

Red Fog is an artistic representation of how depressive mental states can create a metaphorical dense storm cloud in the form of anxiety and paranoia. It can cloud your judgement of reality and can be altered by our life experience for better or for worse. This dense fog can be hard to disperse and if left unchecked, it can cause devastating damage to a persona’s mental state.

I have been coming to Peer Wellness & Recovery Services (PWRS) art groups for a few years, and love all of it! The helping set up the group, clean up, and most important, draw, paint, copy words and ads, use clay, and crochet. And talk with the other artists! My family is from Senegal, and it's great that I can speak French (one of Senegal's languages) with some of the other participants in the group. I love primary colors, in fact color in general. I really am a happy person and like to spread joy with my pictures/art - I will often give some of my art to others as a gift. I hope you can find joy in your own creative work because I sure do!

This is a fluid art painting using acrylic paints mixed with medium. The technique used was a straight pour. It was hard to name this name painting, however when I view it, I view it as a satellite viewing of the earth.

Bright acrylic pens on black canvas vibrant and energizes the light in the darkness to see the light and fond my way from stigma and illness

The artwork represents the crayons equally standing, finding strength in their adjacent neighbors. During difficult times, each crayon weakens to different intensity, while the neighboring crayons veer left, or right, to support the bleeding color, continuing to provide support during meltdowns.

As a first-generation Mexican American, my extended family has a rather black-and-white view of mental health, which hugely impacted someone who I’ve lived with all my life that person being my mom. She has so much resilience and strong will that I look up to with admiration, even as she had to endure and battle so much, both physically and mentally. As my family and I have struggled with housing and financial stability, even having faced homelessness on more than one occasion; out of all of us, she was the one who held us altogether. Due to an exposure to mental health and illness early in my life, and as it continues existing not just with my family and friends, but with myself as well, I’ve often explored facets of emotion and psyche in my artwork.

It’s an intricate relationship between art and mental health. It features an array of abundance of lines making an ever growing circle. It’s in continuous and cyclical nation of whole state of health. The green reminds us to grow and renew among the unity and wholeness of the lines.

In my artwork, I am fighting out of the whirlpool of death that I for so long swam in, and project myself out, shooting towards the beautiful, sparkling rays of sunshine, love, life, purpose. Shooting to my life only achievable through my recovery. Shooting to my family.

I believe art is healing. This piece is a response to trauma. Instead of lashing out, I created this to show that even in anger and activation, we can create beauty and reframe our world. Kiss This exemplifies all the SELFS (advocacy, determination, efficacy, and care), and most importantly, hope.

I have been coming to this art class for a while now, through Peer Wellness and Recovery Services (PWRS) and I’ve met a lot of different people along the way. Like for instance, I met a friend here named Cathy, who was always the kind of inspiration for the pieces that I did. I love to paint and sometimes I would draw, depending on my mood.

My painting describes the different parts of recovery and how they are unified into progress. The elements of the painting are made up of imperfections. There is no perfect way to recover. Who’s to say what is the right way to recover, everyone’s process is different. Through painting I have discovered the important role art plays in my recovery. It allows me to stay centered and focus on moving forward. Staying sober allows me to move in a positive direction. The recovery process all though imperfect is still beautiful, like my painting.

I'm a conceptual researcher who addresses health disparities in communities of color. This often means considering the nature of reality, the built environment and embedded structural systems that uphold inequity. It can feel crushing at times- an impossible effort requiring simultaneous recognition of the commitment and effort needed to stimulate (and then maintain) change, with knowledge of the eventual heat death of the universe (making most things ultimately pointless). As a nurse scientist during the pandemic, I worked to improve vaccine uptake in in Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.

White roses that symbolize love. Hope is love.

This artwork is about my transformative journey in recovery from the depth of darkness and despair to embracing the fullness of life represented by holding the sun. The sun is a powerful symbol for me signifying the light of love, joy, hope, energy, possibility, renewal, empowerment, and creation. As an artist, creative expression has been instrumental to my story and healing process art has played an integral role in saving my life and continues to provide a pathway of discovery and growth. As a certified peer support specialist, expressive arts facilitator, and creativity and mindfulness coach, it is an honor to support others on their path to wellness.

This strength-based approach to expressing healing from childhood experiences uses the "exquisite corpse" process of sectioning a canvas into thirds, with three separate community members adding their artwork to make the painting complete. When a section is complete, it is covered with only a sliver of color and lines for the next community member to connect to. When unveiled, artists find immediate connection and understanding to other contributors of the artwork. The deep discussion that happens when speaking about how someone stayed strong through childhood struggles affords a unique experience that not only builds understanding of trauma and healing, but forges healing connections that strengthen community.

This piece is a type of Zen doodle art that I started creating with a year ago. It offers me a creative outlet and helps to manage my anxiety. I created this piece after an intensely emotional day. 'Growth Exposed' is an abstract portrayal of nature, life, and exposed roots. Often, our current level of mental health is not accurately observed in our external appearance. An honest look at our root system can offer a true evaluation of things that are feeding good and bad nutrients into our overall mental health, mood, emotions, and level of joy.

This acrylic painting is a square foot and done on panel. It is comprised of two colors, a royal blue and a "blueberry yogurt" purple. It has a central design based off a grid that radiates outward. Although it is a grid it is made by hand, so its slight imperfections are emphasized.

In my painting about recovery, the blue represents the calm, the reserved, the sobriety. The red represents the anger and desperation. The white slashes represent the static and pain. The black lines are the confusion, the desire to hang on. The crack between the red and blue represents being broken. The gold border with green lines represents recovery and rebirth. The border shows things have come full circle around the insanity at my core.

Ultra-high quality framed reproduction of artist original on canvas. Framed in a white wood floater frame with black inset.

Letting lots of color through after the darkness

This painting expresses the grief I felt when my biggest protective factor, my grandmother passed away. It has layers and layers of paint on top of each other through a series of three weeks, each stroke providing some healing. As I was painting, I reminded myself of the loving words my grandmother would say to me, which helped me more than I can describe. I am a passionate mental health educator today because of her.

I have lost 5 clients to overdose to date and there is no doubt in my mind that will continue to increase. However, I have witnessed stories of redemption. My art piece is representative of this, a plague that fell on an ancient society, but later freedom came. Much like the opioid epidemic brought despair, death, and destruction to our country, it is not without stories of joy, hope, and freedom in the beautiful, messed up world we live in. I am grateful to be a professional that gets to witness the growth and joy of this.

In my early recovery, I pasted old, handwritten journal pages onto big pieces of wood, then painted colors (emotions) over the entire thing. Then I added something spiritual in the middle to symbolize the direction my recovery was headed -- toward healing and transformation.

"Emergence" is a poignant and evocative piece that visually narrates the transformative journey from the depths of darkness into the luminous embrace of recovery. Set against a stark black canvas, the artwork captures the essence of struggle, resilience, and hope. A string of purple petals gracefully meanders across the dark background, symbolizing the fragile yet steadfast steps taken on the path to healing. This artwork resonates deeply with the mission of SAMHSA's 2024 Art Recovery Project, highlighting the universal narrative of moving from darkness to light and the continuous, beautiful process of recovery.

This painting represents my recovery from the different addictions that I have had during my life. The colors represent freedom, health and self-love. Thanks to art I have been able to express my different feelings. Art is the most beautiful expression of the soul to express feelings.

"The Darkness Isn't Always Evil" is a compelling piece crafted with brush and ink, illustrating my journey of recovery and identity as an immigrant. The artwork depicts dark clouds enveloping an eye that watches over a serene lake, surrounded by lush bushes. This imagery symbolizes my struggles with mental health amidst the challenges of migration, conveying that even in darkness, there is a guiding presence and potential for calm and growth. This piece highlights the transformative power of art in coping and self-discovery, breaking down stigmas and fostering empathy and support for those on their path to wellness

This painting represents unity, joy and the importance of community in recovery. Taking inspiration from textile traditions, clients at Odyssey House collaborated on a community quilt depicting things that make them happy, animals, nature, and symbols from everyday life. It fostered teamwork, imagination, and positivity. Recovery doesn’t happen alone, and this painting is a demonstration of collective joy in the recovery process.

The art is used black ink pens, abstract formed art that have Chinese characters with some lines.

Chaos in my Calm depicts how my mind is always going. When I sit down and scribble with my eyes closed, I find some type of peace. I don't worry about what was, what is or what is going to be. Once I open my eyes, look at what transpired while I disconnected for a short while. Then my calm comes from using the different colors, watercolors, pastels, florescence, acrylics, and pencils. Once I'm done coloring or painting, I feel like everything is going to be okay. My Calm.

I was asked by Goodwill career opportunity center to paint a submission for their 2nd Chance Day. I decided to paint this butterfly phoenix rising out of the ashes to signify second chances and rebirth. They currently have it hanging in their lobby.

I am someone who lives with a bipolar diagnosis. I have felt tremendous swings in mood and energy for months at a time, from dizzying heights to desolate lows. This painting represents coming to a place of being moored, anchored, and stable. In euthymia, I no longer sink into deep depression or float ever upward, spiraling too close to the blistering sun of mania. The red and blue represent the duality that is inherent within me, the two poles that I have managed to find balance between, including both the tranquility and peace (blue) and the love and passion (red) that keep me tethered. The scene is one of recovery.

Therapeutic

This mandala represents the interconnectedness essential for long-term, recovery success. In the early 1930s, wooden "Bill Ding" clown blocks and Bill W's 12-Step program came into the world. Success with either takes mindful concentration and interconnectedness.

In recovery I rediscovered my love of drawing. For me it was almost a meditation practice. This piece speaks to weathering the storms we face in recovery and not breaking. Currently, this drawing is framed and on my youngest daughter’s wall in her room. Quite appropriate since her pending arrival was the outside motivation, I needed to finally try a new way of life. It's been almost 17 years(as of this writing) of living in recovery and it wouldn't be possible without the support of others in the same situation. Life gets good in recovery.

To me, art is one who draws something beautiful out of nothing. A line that can become something or a place you like to be, helping you to visualize what you want to do or be. Art frees me to create a loving, caring world.

For 63 of my 66 years, I have cycled through multiple Mental Health Challenges, layer after layer. My life was often scary and dark feelings threatened to swallow me more than once. Through the support of professionals, including Peer Support Specialists, I kept seeking recovery. This image, The Awakening, represents my recovery. Though the remnants of darkness remain, recovery has taken over—with bright colors and brightening light.

"Art and Healing: Visible Mending" is a transformative project that encompasses my evolving body of paintings and the workshops I have conducted with doctors in residency at Yale, in collaboration with the Ely Center for Contemporary Arts. This meaningful project will be showcased at the prestigious Transcultural Exchange Conference at MIT in 2025. For me, this project holds deep personal significance as it serves as a journey of healing and self-discovery following a devastating loss in a fire two years ago. Through the practice of creating art, I have found a source of healing and solace, allowing me to navigate through the challenges of rebuilding and transforming my life.

Part of a series of individual emotions/moods/feelings I created for an art class during Covid Lockdown. Having Generalized Anxiety, I'm at some level of stress most all the time. I know what low-high stress, overwhelm, & burnout are. "Knowing is half the battle." Willingness, then learning & resources alongside Psychological Therapies are the next half. I may have Anxiety the rest of my life. Though, at least for now I can manage it. Perhaps in the future I'll be more resilient, able to handle stress more easily.