When walking around the art gallery, there were many beautiful art pieces that touched the audience in many ways and made me stop and think about it. Two artist works have stood out to me than the rest which are: Avani Palkhiwala’s “A Mandala of This Confounding & Extraordinary Body” and Kristy Lopez’s “Gratitude Gifts: Rescue, Abundance, Sorry, Adventure, Bloom, Lover’s Soup, Support, Middle, Roots, Only, Leo”. Both these pieces show mental health awareness along with specific a female’s health. This exhibition was one of my favorite ones yet.
Avani’s piece stood out to me because the material she used, which were mirror pieces, allowed us to look down and see our own reflection through her mandala design. When taking a deeper look within the design, you can see objects like the sun, baby bottle, dumbbells, and pregnancy tests for example. The message that I interpreted from it was to not judge a women’s body, life and/or health since there are a lot that is expected from them. Some reasons on why I think this is from the pregnancy test and baby bottles, due to women being expected to have a family with kids and be a stay-at-home mom. Then the dumbbells come into play due to society expecting women to have a specific type of body figure along with losing the baby weight if they have any. Also, when looking down at the mandala, you can see your own reflection through it, so it makes you look at yourself and start to think. In the book, Understanding Patriarchy by Bell Hooks it states, “I announced my desire to play and was told by my brother that “girls did not play with marbles”, that it was a boy’s game” (20). This quote shows how women need to be looked at deeper than just their looks and being baby makers. Another quote from Understanding Patriarchy, “Like many visionary radical feminists I challenged the misguided notion, put forward by women who were simply fed up with male exploitation and oppression, that men were “the enemy.” (25). This art raises questions and awareness on the stigma of how women’s lives should be and to take a deeper look at yourself.
The artwork by Kristy Lopez, I absolutely loved it. She made multiple different clay pieces that represented someone in her life like her parents, lover, grandparents and therapist which has had a major influence in her life along with thank you cards that specified the impact. These people in our lives, we tend to take them for granted and sometimes we don’t know how to say thank you to them for the help they gave us. In the book, This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew it states, “I was depressed, burned-out, and I felt like I was failing in every direction” (12). This quote describes how outside sources like school for example, can affect our mental health and makes us feel like we are spiraling downhill constantly and there is no stopping. The message that is conveyed is to appreciate everyone in your life either good or bad and to check in on others from time to time. When looking at her artwork, questions arose about mental health awareness like why is there discrimination about it when its sadly something that isn’t going away anytime soon so it’s best to understand it. This work is activist since it’s bringing up a topic that so many people tend to avoid and are uneducated in, that looking at this art makes them want to learn more.
In my selfie, I wanted to make a collage of all the people that has had an impact on my life and made me who I am today. These people include my parents, sister and her boyfriend, cousins, and friends. Mental health is no joke since an illness like depression can drive people to suicide which is never the answer to anything. My parents dedicated their life to give me and my sister whatever we want (with good reason) and has shaped us to be these amazing grown women. My sister who is my best friend has always been there for me no matter what and helps try to understand my mental health and what I am going through. My sister’s boyfriend is the big brother that I always wanted and wouldn’t trade him for the world. Friends helped make me in a better mood and just live life instead of in my head like the usual. Lastly, Mindy the cat has been my emotional support cat and honestly helps me start the day when she can tell that I’m not okay. There are so many other people who have helped me shape who I am today, and words can’t describe how thankful I am. My mental health makes me think that I am alone and that everyone hates me but these people that I am surrounded by give me strength to get better.
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