Tulip top | mental hospital | depression | anxiety | PTSD | mental health | suicide | art therapy | yellow | naïve style
Title: tulip mental hospital
Artist: leslie dean brown
Medium: prismacolor™ pencils on crappy office paper. Unframed
Overall total paper size: 21cm x 30cm (8" x 12")
This artwork has a unique story behind it. I did this while I was an involuntary patient in a mental hospital. I spent a whole week there.
Although it looks like it was drawn with crayons, it was in fact drawn with prismacolour™ pencils in a mandala art style (pressing as hard as possible).
It took over 2 hours to complete. Normally, people don't do the entire background. I had plenty of time on my hands, so I did.
The only art materials available were some crappy broken prismacolor™ pencils and some equally crappy office paper. I had to resharpen all the pencils.
Even so, I was able to create some "art" and think more about my upcoming illustration style.
You can read more about that whole experience here:
PART I: https://www.vidaenigmatica.org/there-were-always-ample-warnings-there-were-always-subtle-signs/
PART II: https://www.vidaenigmatica.org/theyll-be-waitin-for-an-answer-but-you-know-nobodys-home/
PART III: https://www.vidaenigmatica.org/got-your-mind-in-submission-got-your-life-on-the-line/
"There is room for a an oil painting and also a tulip drawn with crayons. Though why anyone would pay £45 for the crayon picture that looks like it was done by a top 5 year old... is subjective. I had to take my young son out of a room in Tate modern once because he was laughing too much at a piece of modern art. Someone clearly thought it was worthy. So art and crafts are all subjective, and belong here because someone might like it, whatever it is."
In light of this prior statement about my art, I have decided to double the selling price. :)
Mental health is not something to joke about. I am just glad that I am in a better place than I was two years ago.
I can cope with people who criticise my art. Now I am going to churn it out like a crafter.
This piece has special meaning to me. It's not every day that you create art from inside a psychiatric ward that shares more in common with a prison than it does a traditional hospital.
https://www.instagram.com/vayakora
https://www.etsy.com/au/people/quintessentquirk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJH2VCCjxuZyOdrQZnm4ZA
https://www.lesliedeanbrown.com/illustration