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Inside/Out: Art and Mental Health

Amy Mrusek – Boundaries, oil pastel and watercolor, 11.5” x 18” (n.d.), NFS

Amy Mrusek – Boundaries, oil pastel and watercolor, 11.5” x 18” (n.d.), NFS

An Introduction to Inside/Out: Art and Mental Health

Jerry Saylor – Toulouse at Royale, oil on canvas, 36” x 24” (n.d.)

Jerry Saylor – Toulouse at Royale, oil on canvas, 36” x 24” (n.d.)

By H. Michael Sanders

Human interaction with artistic expression, as both maker and observer, involves extremely powerful and inspiring dimensions. Viewers are able to experience worlds and visions arising from outside themselves through the visceral mechanisms of sight, sound and touch. Creators of art, whether visual, aural or textual, discover the power to intensify personal experience and thought into physical manifestations forming bridges to the senses and thoughts of others. In short, art can be a profoundly transformative experience for the integrated continuum established between the creator and the observer, a connection which is ripe with opportunity for both full experience the self and the other.

With such dynamic and intense possibilities lurking at the heart of aesthetic experience, in all of its myriad variety, it should be no surprise to anyone that artistic expression contains the potential to heal as well as capturing and communicating the human experience. The work in this exhibition is an attempt to explore how artists confronting the profound challenges of mental health issues find ways to address and integrate these experiences in to their artistic practice, whether engaged in for aesthetic or therapeutic purposes.

Comprising over fifty individual artworks by thirty-eight artists, the work in this show has been selected to showcase well-developed artistic talents wielded by artists confronting mental health challenges, as well as the use of creative approaches to personal expression employed by individuals in a therapeutic context at one of the participating mental health organizations. A selection of original poetry related to the exhibition theme is also available on the UC Blue Ash Art Gallery webpage.

This creative collaboration between UC Blue Ash College Art Gallery, Central Clinic Behavioral health and the Recovery Center of Hamilton County, was inspired by Central Clinic’s 95th anniversary celebration during 2018, coupled with the fact that Central Clinic’s location on the UC College of Medicine campus was initiated in 1932 by then UC President Dr. Raymond Walters, the prior namesake of UC Blue Ash College.

The UCBA Art Gallery is proud to present his collaborative exhibition which explores the richly textured human interests of identity and self-discovery, self-esteem and self-preservation, emotional release, psychological stability, and glimmering crystals of hope. Our hope is that the viewer sees in these varied works both windows to the experience of others, and mirrors reflecting the struggles and dreams we universally share.

Michael Reynolds – African Dancer, 20” x 16”, colored pencil (n.d.)

Michael Reynolds – African Dancer, 20” x 16”, colored pencil (n.d.)

Participating Artists

  • Anonymous – Anxiety, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 10” (n.d.), $350 | Suicide is Painless, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 24” x 18” (n.d.), $350
  • Theresa Bryant – Song Bird, acrylic on canvas, 6” x 6” (n.d.), $7
  • Nicole Carter – Single Mind, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12” (n.d.), $30
  • Michael Coppage – David, acrylic on paper, 60” x 36” (n.d.), $600 | Desi, acrylic on paper, 60” x 36” (n.d.), $600 | Kat, acrylic on paper, 60” x 36” (n.d.), $600 | Michael, acrylic on paper, 60” x 36” (n.d.), $600
  • Alyson L. Dempsey –  Finding My Song, mixed media on canvas, 11” x 14” (n.d.), NFS | Your Glow Basket, found object with mixed media, 31” x 44” x 15” (n.d.), NFS
  • Sharon Frey – Glamour Girl, ceramic mask with mixed media, 8” x 6” x 4” (n.d.), $75 | Kabuki Girl, ceramic mask with mixed media, 8” x 6” x 4” (n.d.), $75 | Night Goddess, ceramic mask with mixed media, 8” x 6” x 4” (n.d.), $75
  • Sarah Gallant – The Dragonfly’s Dream, digitally altered collage on paper, 18” x 14” (n.d.), $100
  • Dr. Sara Grace – Wounded Brain, acrylic on canvas, 9” x 12” (n.d.), $75 | A Glimmer of Hope Amongst My Sky of Madness, acrylic on canvas, 8” x 10” (n.d.), $65
  • Group Project – Hope Community Center: Family Tree of Life, mixed media on canvas, 18” x 16” (n.d.), NFS Angel/Becky/Brenda/Carolyn/Debra/Kassia/Linda/Pamela/Rhonda
  • Margaret Hall – Butterflies Are Free, watercolor on paper, 11” x 8” (n.d), $50
  • Angel Harden – Planetary Division, mixed media on canvas, 8” x 10” (n.d.), $40
  • Hammond –  Looking for Happy, mixed media on canvas, 18” x 72” (3 panels) (n.d.), $3500
  • Jonathan Hancock –Octagon Emoticon, enlarged print of ink on paper, 36” x 18” (2016), $100
  • Denise Hanley – I Would Like to Thank Central Clinic, marker on canvas. 10” x 8” (n.d.), NFSUplifting Women, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 16” (n.d.), NFS
  • Chloe Iliff – Gnomes (two examples), ceramic, variable dimensions (n.d.), $15 | Fairy Houses(three examples), ceramic, variable dimensions (n.d.), $20
  • Anthony Kohlmayer – Migraine, acrylic on canvas, 10” x 8” (n.d.), $30
  • Patrick Martin – Going to Central Clinic, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20” (n.d.), NFS
  • Holly Ann Meiser – Bipolar… A Wonderful Wild Ride, mixed media with text on panel, 19” x 23” (2015), $250 | You’ve Seen Me as I Am, acrylic and tissue paper on panel, 20” x 16” (2008), $225
  • Stephan Moore – 405 Oak Street, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20” (n.d.), $50
  • Becky Mosteller – Eye of the Storm, acrylic on canvas, 10” x 8” (n.d), $30
  • Amy Mrusek – Boundaries, oil pastel and watercolor, 11.5” x 18” (n.d.), NFS | Dissociation Identity Disorder, acrylic and watercolor, 12” x 9” (n.d.), NFS
  • Jeannie Mueller –Howling at the Moon, watercolor, 13” x 9” (n.d.), $200
  • Recardo G. Parker, Jr – Forever Love, mixed media on paper, 11” x 8.5” (n.d.), $25 | Escaping the Darkness, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 16” (n.d.), $50
  • Krysia Rush – Hello Central, acrylic on canvas, 14” x 11” (n.d.), NFS
  • Kimberly Phirman – Fragments of Change, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20” (n.d.), NF
  • Michael Reynolds – African Dancer, 20” x 16”, colored pencil (n.d.), $200
  • Jerry Saylor – Toulouse at Royale, oil on canvas, 36” x 24” (n.d.), $1500
  • Rhonda L. Thorne – Untitled 1 (seeing the world through gauze), mixed media with acrylic and photographs on canvas, 12” x 12” (n.d.), $155 | Untitled 2 (rebirth), acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12” (n.d.), $125 | Untitled 3 (skeezik’s spaceshuttle party), mixed media with acrylic and photographs on canvas, 6” x 8.125” (n.d.), $235 [RC] | Untitled 4 (frantic undulations), mixed media with acrylic and screen on wood panel, 8” x 8.375” (n.d.), $185 | Untitled 5 (high atmosphere storm or rumble of the gods), mixed media with acrylic and photographs on wood panel, 9.625” x 11.125” (n.d.), $165 | Living things grow upward but are not free…, stoneware ceramic with cold-fire glaze, 8” x 17.5” x 5.25” (n.d.), $850
  • Pam West – Young Girl, acrylic on canvas, 10” x 8” (n.d.), $30
  • Allison Williams – Mantle of Motherhood: A Framework of Imperfection, mixed media on canvas, 24” x 24” (n.d.), NFS
  • Crystal Wright – Reaching My Goal Through the Darkness, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 16” (n.d.), $1200 | Can You See Me?, illustrated book of color photocopies (8 pages), 11” x 8.5” (n.d.), NFS

Participating Poets

  • Linda Baden – “On Cloudy Days” [CC]
  • Linda Baden –  “Against All Odds” [CC]
  • Justin Chu – “My Sweet Desperation and Anxiety” [CC
    1. Life is Nothing Without Music
    2. A Freak Like Me
    3. Puddle of Blood
    4. Life Spiraling Away
    5. Be You
  • Alyson Dempsey – “Silent Tears” [RC]
  • Shelly Kinder – “The Battle”    
  • Holly Ann Meiser – “Bipolar… A Wonderful Wild Ride” (RC)
  • Holly Ann Meiser – “You’ve Seen Me as I Am” [RC]
  • Sacoiya Pruitt – “Womanhood” [CC] | “Thinking of Ways to Not Love Myself” [CC]
  • Allison Williams – “Papa” [RC]
Download Full Poetry Collection Document

Acknowledgments

The UC Blue Ash Art Gallery is supported by the Office of the Dean and the departments of Art & Visual Communication and Electronic Media Communications. This exhibition is curated by H. Michael Sanders and John Wolfer, with the assistance of Matt Bennett and Nicole Trimble.

Gallery publications are edited by H. Michael Sanders and designed by Michael Ziepfel. Gallery webpage is designed and maintained by David Bostic. John Wolfer is gallery director.

Resources

Contact Information

Phone: 513-936-1712
Email: bagaller@ucmail.uc.edu