Mental Health/Wellness

Art can have therapeutic effects because it provides creative minds with an outlet to express ineffable feelings. While the “tortured artist” has been a common trope for centuries, the links between mental illness and art are truly deep. If select famous artists are known in part for the ways their mental illness affected their art—Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portrait after cutting off his ear springs most readily to mind—it is because mental illnesses have a significant impact on the sufferers’ creativity and how they express themselves through their art. In their attempt to portray how mental illness makes them feel, many artists use their illness as a muse. This explains why the works of so many artists known to have suffered from mental illness impress upon the viewer a heaviness or urgency that cannot quite be put into words. Indeed, this very concept of speechlessness—of an inability to verbally articulate what the mentally ill artist is experiencing—has frequently led directly to great works of visual art.

An iconic example can be found in Edvard Munch’s The Scream, a painting commonly understood to represent his inner feelings of despair and torment. But it is far from the only work in the artist’s oeuvre, which includes works named Melancholy, Anxiety (Angst), and Despair, that speaks to his mental concerns. He is known to have stated, “My sufferings are part of myself and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings.” That said, Munch has also unfairly been pigeonholed for these works, particularly The Scream, one of the most famous paintings of the 20th Century. Far less attention has been paid to his later works, produced after he is known to have sought treatment for his various mental ailments that are literally brighter and come across as more optimistic and hopeful about the world.

In this vein, artists known to have suffered from mental illness can be linked too closely with those illnesses, with less attention paid to how those artists’ works have evolved with time or to their works that are less redolent of the trauma that mental illness can effectuate. Also ripe for exploration is how art helps the artist gain control of mental illness by sublimating their thoughts and feelings into something productive rather than allowing themselves to be consumed by that trauma. Munch, for example, saw it as a positive sign that he could express his anxiety and despair in his art. Canadian-American painter Agnes Martin, known for paintings that call forth deep reservoirs of emotion in the viewer, put it even more succinctly when she said, “Sometimes through hard work, the dragon is weakened.”

This is only one example of how art is being employed as a therapeutic for those suffering from mental illness or its effects on loved ones. As another example, in the spring of 2022, the Galerie Camille in Detroit ran an exhibition entitled Looking for the Light, intended to destigmatize mental illness and bring comfort and support to those affected. When the exhibit curator held an open call for submissions, she reported that the response from artists was overwhelming. The exhibit was also intended as a celebration of artists who struggle with mental illness and an attempt to bring them together as a community to let them know that they are not alone.

Justice Murals is a strong and abiding ally of those who suffer from mental illness and whose lives are upended by its effects on others. We share Kusama’s belief in art as therapy and art as medicine, and we are proud to support artists who channel their struggles into something positive and beautiful for all the world to see.

Alameda High School

Students at Alameda High School created this important mural in support of mental health.

Project Press Play

Justice Murals was excited to be a part of Project: Press Play exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in honor of Mental Awareness Week. We enjoyed painting at Oakland’s Lincoln Nights and projecting on the Great Wall of Oakland.