World Mental Health Week: Strong stories of inspiration

If putting thoughts to words were a struggle, surprise yourself with doodles as you watch your own stories come to life on your skin, at Bengaluru lass Sanchana Krishnan’s campaign SplattersSpeaks. Sanchana is also the curator of an initiative titled Living Stories that encourages people to talk about their journey of mental health. With regard to World Mental Health Week, the Bengaluru edition of this campaign happens today at Church Street Social.

Watching your deepest thoughts manifest as doodles on your own body is an incredibly overwhelming experience that breaks the ice to talk about it. Sanchana who herself battles with an intense phobia of insects had a huge psychedelic bug painted on her by fellow artists. “For me to have an insect drawn on me was not easy but I have realised that after twenty years of dealing with this, I was getting better. The point of using art on your own body is to help people relive their mental health journey in a positive way, reconcile with the demons in their past or communicate it better. People don’t see often physical signs of mental illness but there is self-harm, cutting, nail biting and not eating enough well does show negatively on the body.”

Every individual gets one-on-one time with an artist, as they talk and the artist puts their words to paint. Nidhi Mariam Jacob Cariappa, an artist who will be present at the event shares her excitement, “The realisation that this was going to be more about the bond I share with each subject than just the end-product, and the intimacy that comes from it is fascinating for me. I am really looking forward to that and it is important that I do right by them.”

These artistes who participated in the Splatters Speaks editions at Mumbai and Delhi spoke of their own experiences as they translated people’s stories into art. Symbolising your body as a canvas quite literally makes you a walking, talking piece of art. Aditi Kumar, an art therapist says, “Before words were introduced, symbols and signs were the way of communicating. I use art as a way to connect to the holistic self, which we tend to ignore in our day to day life. Combining yourself with the mode of colours that you usually put on others, is a gratifying process that gives both the power and courage to go beyond restricted ways of communicating and representing yourself in ways that are not always possible.”

With metaphors, colour blends and organic inspiration these artistes are inspired by the conversations they have about mental health. Ishtha Kapoor adds, “If anything can be a canvas, then why not use your own body to exhibit your own story. One of the people I painted on spoke about how difficult they find it to talk, and yet that person was talking and smiling so naturally throughout our session! I thought it was an incredible moment of not only breaking out of your shell, but also being comfortable with all aspects of you.”