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Our Lady of Mental Illness, 2022
A Painting by Monika DeLeeuw-Tanchyk
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Few things are both romanticized and stigmatized more than mental illness. The contrast between most media portrayals of a tortured hero or heroine contrast sharply with the challenges faced by the mentally ill in real life - from the difficulty of finding and affording treatment to the challenges of holding down jobs and keeping relationships intact. As someone who deals with mental illness myself, I believe it is vitally important to humanize rather than romanticize.
Mental illnesses are essentially invisible, so I wanted to use this piece to visually represent several of the most common ones. Because if mental illness actually occurred with more obvious outward signs, it is likely that there would be far less stigma attached, and those of us who deal with them would find it much easier.