The Depression Project

…But Have You Tried?

I thought about this project for quite a long time. I wanted to express the desperation of people who feel they have “tried everything” and sometimes still just feel bad, with the juxtaposition of all the well meaning but thoughtless people who say, “…but have you tried…?”

I chose to represent as many forms of efforts and coping as I could, including mantras, journaling/therapy, self help books, dietary change, candles, bubble bath, wine, tea, religion, and of course, pills.

I collected bottles for months, and wrote new labels on all of them to represent all the various things folks are prescribed or told to do… or simply, an empty bottle of “spoons, spoons, spoons.”

Note that while depression can be fatal, and art is up to everyone’s personal interpretation, this project for me was very intentionally about feeling hopeless, helpless, or bleak, but it is about the ceaselessness of the ongoing nature of still trying. It is not about suicide.

Concept design, photography, editing and modeling by Mara

Mental Health Matters

An amazing project with photographer Adam Dudgeon and bodypaint artist Jennifer Pincelli about breaking out of the confines of mental illness struggle.

Covid

Simply self portraits done while I was suffering from Covid. Alone, isolated, and afraid.