The year 2020 has been a rough year for most people. The California Fires, Murder Hornets, the Global Pandemic and so much more. From the pandemic, we were all forced to quarantine at home until the cases from the state lowered. It was a waiting game. Eventually people got tired of being around their loved ones 24/7 or they lived alone and wanted company. Zoom, Skype, Facetime, and other forms of video calling slightly satisfied people with being able to communicate with other people. But it wasn't enough. Physical contact was also needed. With these stresses people had become socially stressed or stressed from the lack of information about COVID-19.
In this project I want to share one of the issues the pandemic has caused. A drop in mental health. I also want to share my struggles while in quarantine to eventually bring awareness to untreated mental health issues or the development of them.
In this project I want to share one of the issues the pandemic has caused. A drop in mental health. I also want to share my struggles while in quarantine to eventually bring awareness to untreated mental health issues or the development of them.
-Art-
I didn't want a piece that screamed "Mental Health!" That would undermine the reality of having a mental illness. People usually suffer alone and keep quiet about their issues until someone notices or when it's too late.
Mental illness can keep you from doing things you enjoy. I have experienced low motivation and willingness to do participate in the activities I love. My original plan was to address that fact by pitting pins and needles into objects that represent me. The artist that I was inspired by at the time was Erwina Ziomkowska. She covers beautiful fashion items with pins to represent the pain the items have on the user. |
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The objects I chose were wooden pencils and erasers because I like to draw. During my time in quarantine, I didn't draw that much despite having the time to. Another object I was going to pin was a backpack because I missed the social aspect of school.
Time was my enemy. The pins in the objects were not going to be completed in time, nor look nice. I decided to change my idea, or at least change what I was pinning. In my experience with the battle of mental health, I didn't reach out to anyone. I thought my struggle was a burden to others and that they would only stress about me more. I would snap at my friends and family. I convinced them I was fine by putting up my walls. I was afraid that I would be seen as weak if I didn't keep up the facade of "being okay." I want to show that aggression I had through my art. In this piece I found a jewelry box from Pandora and used that as my base. I wanted to keep the idea of pins representing pain so I used multiple lengths of pins and nails. I hot glued them on in a randomized fashion, to represent the unpredictibility of my mood swings. |
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I covered the box with nails. On the sides I wrote words or phrases that were my thoughts. I also wrote some lines from my poems. The words were drawn with multiple sizes of soft chiseled ink pens.
The inside of the box was decorated with jems. It acts as a reward for being able to open the box. This represents the real me on the inside. I'm really I good person underneath my hard front. I also included mini self portraits of me. I referenced some pictures I took of myself during quarantine, ranging from different expressions. |
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-English-
I wanted to make my piece personal. During my time in quarantine, I learned that writing down my feelings helped me understand them better and it also helped other people understand what I felt when they read what I put down. With my new found skill, I wanted to write about my mental state in quarantine.
With the help of Mr. Ward, we decided that spoken word poetry would be the best option. This would let my experience be heard but also in an academic way.
With the help of Mr. Ward, we decided that spoken word poetry would be the best option. This would let my experience be heard but also in an academic way.
My quarantine experience was like a wave when it came down to my emotions. Instead of writing one poem, I decided to write multiple for the multiple emotions I was feeling during that time.
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Just Feeling?This poem is about my thinking. When I was alone I questioned a lot about my existence. I felt numb or not real at times. As the questions go on, the thoughts spiral to end at questioning my existence.
My RoomMy room is never clean, but my room in this poem represents my mind. I have all these things laying around and I don't like anyone knowing what I'm thinking or feeling.
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Silence |
Lying In Paradise |
Silence is my enemy. I hate hearing nothing, escspecially when I'm alone. My thoughts make up for the silence and I overthink. At times I forgot if I was talking out loud to myself or I was just thinking.
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I know, I used the wrong word! Actually, I didn't! My struggle with mental health came from my lack of telling the truth. In this poem I compared my lies to water. Over time I've become a really good liar so my words came out quickly even if they weren't true.
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Primal Instincts |
Still |
I wanted to make a poem that had the reader's heart pounding. Primal Instincts is about the fights I have with my mom. Every time we fight, my mind resorts to fight or flight.
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I used a ton of repitition in this poem to showcase the repeating thoughts that go on in my head.
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Letter For Her |
"Her" is a personified version of my depression. I've written so many good bye letters, but I always end up overthinking and can't go through with my plans.
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Writing these poems have been very therapeutic for me. I've learned that I can understand my emotions better when I write them down.
-History-
This year for history, I am taking civics. I think this time of year is the perfect oppurtinity to be taking this class. During quarantine, a lot of people had more eyes on politicians and current events. I want to look into how politicians were affected by the pandemic when making decisions for the state, country, etc. My planned product for this project would be making my own decisions of what to provide for the people during the early stages of the pandemic.
As a start, I used Governor Wolf, of Pennsylvania, decisions made during the pandemic.
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With the help of Mr. Wimmer, I looked at the United States Census Bureau for information about the population of people in Pennsylvania. This chart displays the statistics of the amount of people that have access to the internet, employer establishments, poverty, at risk population and much more. This helps me gather context of the factors the governor should keep in mind when making a state-wide decision.
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covid-19_impact_planning_report_-_state_42_page_2.pdf | |
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