I just count The hours…

The Story Behind Why I Created It: I call this piece ‘The Clock Is Ticking I Just Count The Hours’ because I sketched it while listening to Power by Kanye West and trying to get my mind off of an anxiety attack I was having . I usually sketch photographs either by hand on canvas paper or on my phone via the app ‘Sketches’ with a stylus pen. This particular piece I doodled in regular the iPhone notes. I used a lot of dark colors black, purple and hints of magenta. The black represents the darkness that sort of comes in and takes over when I’m having a panic attack or suffering anxiety in general. Purple, historically at least in the Catholic Church, associated with sorrow and a sense of unfathomable grief. I remember during Lent seeing the large statue of Jesus covered in a purple sheet to represent his suffering and his death. I used purple to represent the crushing sense of sorrow I feel during these attacks, this urgent plea of helplessness. The little bit of magenta that you see poking through the edges is meant to represent the warm thoughts I have of my family and friends which in addition to prayer help me overcome these frequent attacks.

The goal was to illustrate for those who do not suffer from anxiety what is like to suffer with anxiety, the person is crawling trying to escape the looming darkness that is anxiety that just overcomes them and overshadows them.

The Inspiration Factor: my own journey with anxiety is what inspired me to create this piece, also I found that during the attack it helped to draw what I was feeling as an outlet to get my mind off of what was occurring to me. My goal is to remove the stigmatism that’s often associated with anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness which are often suffered by a great number of people but swept under the rug for fear of judgment. My goal is to draw what it’s like to have anxiety so that somebody who doesn’t have it can understand visually how I feel.

Do you suffer from anxiety? How do you cope? What helps you stay strong? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with me, I love to hear from you.

Love you. Mean it.

Brittany