Der Spiegelblick (The Mirror Gaze) is a visual interpretation of the combination of Neurographics and the thoughts of people struggling with mental illness, and invites the viewer to find common ground.
During the pandemic, a lot of people on the path to mental wellness had the opportunity to look inwards at themselves, their struggles, and where they want to be. I represent this in a physical way through the usage of typography, mirrors, and Neurographica (a mindfulness practice that works with the subconscious mind while drawing, and purports to alter your approach to a issue through self-reflection in art) because I like the idea of creating from your subconscious to visualize memory, language, and thought. Drawing helps us engage more neurons, and the more neurons connected to a network are involved, the more motivated we are and the more energy we have to approach problems.
I began my explorations by first developing a neurographic by drawing long, looping, and crossing lines freeform on paper (with the lines leaving the page) while thinking about a particular issue, and then add random circles.
I then examine the interceptions of the lines and circles, and carve out the sharp edges by rounding off the corners, symbolizing neurons and making the jagged edges curved and soft.
Utilizing typography, I intertwine phrases that I’ve often thought with neurographics, representing the struggles that many people with emotional difficulties face.
At this point, I add color to the text and different sections of the neurographic, working intuitively and using a variety of tones for depth. With this series, I am taking something that is normally ephemeral (thoughts) and giving it a physical form while keeping a certain dreamlike quality. Art is a universal language for raw emotions in which we can communicate, and it’s my hope that people viewing my project will recognize themselves in it; there’s a lot of misconceptions about mental illness in general, and the thoughts someone might have who is struggling aren’t that dissimilar to their own.
