Images from recent exhibitions as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival
A selection of images from The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2023-2026Exhibited at Skypark , Hillhead Library and The Pentagon Centre
Call For Help
It is now almost exactly a year that Paul has been sober. Now it's easy. But at the beginning it was hard, very hard. Paul says that the turning point came one night when the desire for drink was unbearable but his wish to give it up was strong. A long, fraught and emotional phone call to Kenny sealed the deal. Paul would seek help from a mentor. He would win this battle.
Juggling Many Plates
Pixie can tackle almost any number of tasks simultaneously. But it is almost guaranteed that most will never be finished! A work in progress has - by definition - already progressed. She is no shirker, she has many works in progress.Indeed, Pixie excels in organising others and their projects. It is the very definition of her job! She just struggles to organise herself. Now, where's that half-eaten sandwich?
Get Your Head Examined
X has complex mental health illness.
She copes with help from mental health professionals, but that interaction can leave her disheartened. She gets by with grit, bravery and humour. Here she mocks herself and the medical profession in this parody of a doctor listening to what is in her head! She likens the farce to Monty Python. But satire is so much more than that!
Mind The Gap
Derek works in Glasgow’s Central Station. But he also takes on theunofficial roles of therapist, Samaritan, and preventer, if possible,of suicide. He is involved in (and even started) some groups thataim to help those with poor mental health. (He keeps an eye on the When he first saw thismural by platform 6/7, he was moved to tears. To him it said “Manycan help one person, but one person cannot help everyone.” Derek, I suspect, wants to help everyone.But he laughs that the artist disagrees with what he sees. Artists canbe so blind....
The Cousins Visit
V (here played by Ela) has long had mental-health problems andeven been hospitalised. She talks openly about her issues. Her cousin(D is here played by Robyn), by comparison, was successful, happilymarried, had a child, and showed no outward signs of depressionor anxiety. But she killed herself. V is left pained and perplexed. Inhospital, at her lowest, her ever-giving and always-in-control cousinhad visited her. D, herself, never received the help that might havesaved her.But how do you help someone who doesn’t seem to need help?
The Baptism
The emotions low that Lizzy experienced is unimaginable. Broken by work and marriage, and living in her van, she found strength - you might say salvation- in cold water dipping. Lizzy felt renewed and said that she had ‘come home to herself’
There’s More to Life than Tits’
‘There’s more to life than tits’ Lauren ’29’ has struggle with her mental health for many years. After a rough end of a relationship, a friend gifted her a picture of those immortal words. She says, Kathryn has given her hope that things can and will get better and remind her that hope is out there if you just focus on looking forward.
Just Mocking
Kel is often told that she is a good listener. She laughs because she often has no idea what they were talking about. To fit in, she has learned to "mirror" others, hence the mocking bird on her shoulder. She will raise an eyebrow whey they do, purse her lips and make the noise "ooh" when they end their point dramatically.Being on the spectrum is less stressful with good acting skills.
