For Mauhiba Mollah, creating visual art is an outlet.
“[Art] really relieves my stress,” said Mollah, a live painter for Art For Mental Health (AMH) at the SAW gallery, and a communications and media studies student at Carleton.
“When I do it I feel like I am lost in my own world, and I don’t have to think about the things that get to me. It’s a way of expressing myself and you know, it’s a relaxation,” said Mollah.
AMH aims to show the connection between art, mental health, and community. AMH held its annual art show and auction at Ottawa’s SAW gallery on Nov. 28, raising money for local non-profit, Ancoura.
Randy Sidaoui, director of the show, said that he and the team of organizers chose to raise funds for Ancoura because it supports individuals with mental illness.
“[Ancoura] gives [individuals with mental illness] a supportive community, and gives them housing as well,” said Sidaoui. “They take people and help them to stand back on their feet.
Artists at the gallery also said art has therapeutic qualities.
“Whenever someone is going through some kind of deep emotion … it can be overwhelming sometimes, but when your hand is busy making art while thinking about it, I feel like artists can really express what’s going on,” said Paul Perreault, an artist with work featured in the gallery.
“[Art has] helped me a great deal in finding myself in finding peace in stressful moments,” said Perreault.
Perreault also added that his art was a form of therapy for him and other artists.
“When a person has access to a psychotherapist, that could be quite beneficial, but not everyone has access to a good one, but anyone can start doodling. So I think art is the most accessible form of therapy.”
Emily Chase, a featured artist and one of the organizers of the event, said her artwork helps her cope with anxiety.
“When you deal with anxiety, your internal alarms are always going, and when I’m drawing everything around me just goes quiet,” said Chase.
Therese Bergman, a Carleton commerce student, was another live painter featured in the gallery. Bergman said her work helps her to communicate her experiences to others.
She said her work, a painting of a sunrise, was an expression of a shift in her mental health.
“I almost call it my rebirth. I was in a very low place and one day I was just, ‘You know, the sun is rising, it’s a nice day,’ and I just woke up,” Bergman said. “[My work] kind of relates to that a bit, but mostly I just wanted to be a part of this because I was asked to and it’s a fantastic cause.”
Bergman said she is especially supportive of promoting mental health through Ancoura because she has personal connections with mental illness, so she “understands the gravity of what they do.”
“I think it’s something that everyone either has an issue, or knows someone, and I don’t think anyone is completely disconnected from mental health issues.”
Sidaoui said AMH was created to focus on this connectedness through the gallery.
“The image for the event really was to bring art and people together in a beautiful way to celebrate community and to celebrate art, and to celebrate our mental health because through our community, through art, we are able to heal,” Sidaoui added.
Featured image by Isabel Harder.
