Kris Manalien describes the healing effect of working as an artist with long-term depression, and the frustrations and discrimination he has faced.
Art heals, that is a fact. When an artist engages in the act of spontaneous creation, the end product is art and healing. The very act of creating enables the mentally disabled artist to step outside time and to delve the depths of the human psyche to release his innermost visions and experiences, via his creation, to the world.
Art is to the Ying as Healing is to the Yang. Through the act of creation a form of balance is restored and provides another tangent through which to view the world. To engage in art allows the mind to remember how to concentrate and to channel thought in a positive fashion. In stripping away the layers of our projected realities until the inner realities of our souls reveal themselves in the created piece, art thereby offers us a way to address our problems. Whether painting, digital imaging, sculpting, or whatever other medium, each allows the mind to be absorbed by the process of creation and to bathe in the moment.
The main hurdle in this fifth year of the new millennium is inclusion, in particular social inclusion. It is all very well to jump on the bandwagon, as all public art organisations are doing, and claim ?We are all inclusive? to the disabled. But when a service user is confronted with the daunting task of requesting to be included, only to discover that by ?disability? these organisations mean everything other than a mental disability, the truth rings home loud and clear: ?You are mad, go away?.
I have encountered rejection from my local council and art gallery, regional arts board, and the Crafts Council. All of them claim to have strong social inclusion policies but when approached for financial help to develop my art I was met with rejection on the grounds of ?criteria? or just plain ignored. Are they absolutely unaware that a positive response can provide the reason to go on; encouragement of talent never hurts.
Mad artists are now forming groups ? and there is strength in numbers. There is now a website, commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, that gives mentally disabled artists and art lovers a community in which to share their problems and their art: www.madforarts.org. The opportunity to communicate with others like ourselves and the sharing of problems and art with others is a great form of healing.
When politicians pledge to help ?every? citizen to attain their full potential if they can demonstrate the talent, then they should stand by their words and help mentally disabled artists like myself. Yes, they should even go all the way and set up a division in publicly funded arts bodies providing for mentally disabled artists ? with staff who have personal experience to advise and see that each case is considered on its merits and not dismissed because of crazy criteria. Just because you may be Mad, just because you are an outsider and virtually unknown, this should not prevent someone from attaining the dizzy heights of success.
Kris Manalien is a visual artist who has experienced long-term depression.
w: http://www.manalien.co.uk