Friday, October 21, 2011

Anxiety Series - Water Colour

This is a small series I am doing just for fun to get back into the habit of making water colours on a regular basis. In the series I show how my anxiety has impacted my life. In some of the water colours I give my anxiety a form, a hideous orange monster-like form, in drawing Anxiety this way I am able to visualize it better and it helps to overcome it. I use a comical style to take the edge off the subject matter and again to help to over come the real anxiety I face.

1. Anxiety-Don't Hesitate - Water Colour, 2011
Should be pretty self-explanatory but basically you have a representation of me playing chess against the personification of my anxiety, an angel-winged orange monster that is constantly questioning every move I make. Anxiety (the creature) used to have bat-like wings but I decided to change them to angel wings to represent hope. He has also shrunk a little since his last appearance and lost his tail.

2. Anxiety-Chipping Away - Water Colour, 2011
This one really did not scan well at all because I used very subtle colours but you get the idea I hope. The Anxiety creature is sealed away behind these concrete walls but you can see its orange essence kind of seeping through which has resulted in a very vague representation of my wife becoming suspicious and attempting to see what I have hidden away from her and myself. Our dogs and a squirrel look on in surprise.

3. Anxiety-Riddled with Anxiety, Water Colour, 2011
In seeing some of the bacteria riddled fish at Lake Vermillion in Northern Minnesota, I kind of related to them. It was really how I felt about my anxiety and I thought it was a great way to express visually the anxiety which in the past has consumed me. In the scene, I am represented by the blue fish and my wife the pink fish. She has come to wake me up only to find that my entire body has succumb to the Anxiety represented by orange spots.

2 comments:

  1. TJ I'm sooo inspired by this thank you than you! Next time I get in a rut I'm totally doing this. I like how used visual elements and scenes to represent anxiety. The first one is my fav. The chess one. :)

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    1. Cheers Ginny! Ironically it is hard for me to put this kind of material out there so your letter was very inspiring for me. I think it is important for people to be up front about this stuff and drawing it out is a healthy way of getting a handle on it. It really does help.

      Your book is kick-ass so far, its gona be a hit!



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