Most youth in 2021 are on antidepressants and/or anti-anxiety medicine. The pressure on the young to be impossibly perfect in order to be accepted or enough, has severely damaged the youth and their mental health; the pressures to be exceptionally smart, but not too smart or you’re cocky, skinny and beautiful but not too skinny, pretty but not too pretty. The undeniable shame that comes with being different or “not okay” eats us alive. The idea that admitting that you have a problem or that you aren’t perfect is scarier than the drugs we take and the death we chase.
Medium: Pencil crayons on illustration board Size: 11” x 14” Not for sale
FEAR OF SNAKES by GWYNN COULTER
Most snakes are quite friendly. Many people even have them as pets. However many people are terrified of the slithering little monsters. For some people it's the reputation they gained from the one with their massive size and poisonous venom. For some it's the fact that they swallow things whole. In reality most snakes won't actually hurt you but that doesn't mean people still won't be afraid. The funny thing about fear is sometimes it is the idea of being injured that scares people rather than there actually being a threat. I chose to represent this fear using Medusa, because many people were petrified by the idea of looking in her eyes because they would turn into stone, but also the vicious snakes that made up her hair. The funny thing is Medusa actually fell in love with a blind man. Which proves the point that the snakes never posed a real threat unless provoked.
Medium: Watercolour on Illustration board Size: 11” x 14” Not for sale
