Tag: Gabrielle Martin

      Those visiting the Capitol this week will see photos and stories from nearly 30 people living with mental health conditions.  Participants in The Art of Being Me hope to inspire others to share their stories, to seek help, and to reduce stigmas surrounding mental health issues.

      The exhibit, mostly found in the Capitol’s third floor Rotunda, features large portraits of each participant next to the text of a portion of their experience.  There is also a video that features 3-5 minutes of each participant. 

The project is a collaboration between the Burrell Foundation and artist Randy Bacon.  Burrell Foundation Executive Director Gabrielle Martin said it began with 22 volunteers and is now up to 27, talking about, “their very raw, very real experiences with mental health, substance use, sometimes suicide; it kind of runs the gamut.” 

“I think our youngest is 9 years old and it goes all the way up to a gentleman named Joe who’s in his mid-70s.  Every mental health diagnosis, every ethnicity; we wanted it so that anyone who comes in to experience the exhibit will be able to identify with someone or an experience with someone.  Maybe it’s not their own mental health journey but someone that they’re supporting or someone that they know.”

      The exhibit includes stories like those of Alia, a friend of Martin.  She shares not only her own story which began in her youth, but that of supporting her college-age son.

      “Her video is really powerful because she actually brought her son with her to it and so you see her sharing all of this really difficult content, and her struggles, and her coping mechanisms through it, with him, and he’s right there with her,” said Martin.  “We have some very great youths in there as well.  Lincoln and Eli, two boys that share their experience with anxiety, and I believe that one of them does have autism, and we have a young lady, Kate, who shares about her struggle with eating disorders and she is on the recovery side of that … and her video is so powerful.”

      The Art of Being Me came to the Capitol after several legislators and other elected officials saw it last year at Bacon’s studio in Springfield.  After seeing it, some of them requested that it come to the Capitol.  

That included Representative John Black (R-Marshfield), who chairs the House’s budget subcommittee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services.  He called the exhibit, “powerful.”

      “It’s encouraging, too.  Inspirational, actually.   A lot of those people have powerful testimonies, how they’ve overcome mental illness to lead productive lives.  The fact is, and it’s becoming more and more apparent to everyone, that mental illness is a root cause of many of our societal problems, specifically drug abuse and homelessness.  If we can address the mental illness issues then we have a lot better chance of helping people return to [being] productive and happy.”

      Another of those legislators is Representative Betsy Fogle (D-Springfield), who said a large part of addressing mental health issues in state policy is removing stigmas surrounding them, and she hopes having that display in the Capitol will help do just that.

      “It was beautiful.  You had children up to people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s that shared their struggle,” Fogle said of the exhibit.  I don’t know a single family in the world that hasn’t been impacted by mental health or substance abuse disorder and it’s about time we start talking about it and doing something in this building to make sure that future families don’t have the same struggles.”

      Those featured in The Art of Being Me are at varying points in their own mental health journeys, but Martin said the fact that they were willing to share their own stories is empowering for them as well.

      “These individuals were brave and vulnerable enough to share and to talk about their struggles and maybe it is a triumph, maybe it is a continued struggle, maybe it’s talking about their experience with finding therapy and finding ways to cope with maybe a situation that they will live with forever.”

      “These photos are not touched up.  You can see every pore, every hair, every tear, and we did that intentionally, and the size is intentional, so that when you’re there you’re truly feeling like you are looking through the eyes of these individuals and feeling what they’re feeling.”

      Martin adds, “We’re so excited that it’s going to be [in the Capitol] through the 10^th, and we hope that it inspires others and we hope that people want to come forward and share their stories and continue the conversations that we so desperately need to continue sharing and seeking help for.”