Personal Prescription

Acrylic, image transfer, and cotton on canvas

24” x 18” x 1”

Personal Prescription is a mixed-media painting exploring the relationships between intense emotions, mental illness, and sustainable art practices. This painting utilizes text- transfers of pharmacy ephemera, papers that are quickly useless and intended to be thrown away, and interrupts this process of single-use information by immortalizing the information on scraps of canvas. The personal prescription is for escitalopram which is a medication used to treat generalized anxiety disorder and depression; I took this medication for a period of time before finding it ineffective for my needs. Mental healthcare is inextricable part of social sustainability, and the mental healthcare system currently available is lacking. Medication, diagnosis, and counseling are difficult to attain but necessary to support a healthy society. This painting, like therapy, is a patchwork of different materials, sources, and techniques: exploring the complex nature of art, illness, and sustainability.

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