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“Dawn” I created this drawing for the annual Minnesota Walk for Research for Mental Illness. I personally have battled serious, clinical depression for 35 years, the toughest fight of my life. It’s a fight that continues on to th is day as I have the kind of depression that is chronic. The reason that I survived, the reason that I am not on The Street, not addicted to booze or drugs, not in The State Hospital or The Penitentiary or The Graveyard, (because that’s what happens to you now, today, in the United States of America if you have a serious mental illness and you fall between the cracks in the system, cracks as big as the Grand Canyon.) But that didn’t happen to me, not because I’m stronger or wiser than others. I just got luckier. The reason I’m still here is because I got the medical help I needed for a real medical illness, the right medications and therapy. But also because I found love, discovered new meaning and purpose, a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a renewal of my faith, creativity and volunteering, all to help me reclaim my dignity. And the #1 reason that I’m still here is because people were kind to me. My family and friends, medical professionals, others with the illness who helped me get through the dark times with humor and love, passion and compassion. “Dawn” was drawn to resemble a relief statue on the side of a building, a 3d effect to give it depth and texture. The angel is flying up out of the morning sun and there is a broken chain on the angel’s leg, a broken chain representing all of us who have been wounded, that we are not chained to the Earth, but can soar up like angels. That there is nothing we can’t do or dream. On the bottom of the picture is one of my favorite quotes, some words by Henry David Thoreau: “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, But by an infinite expectation of the dawn which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep.”
The lithograph print is signed and printed on acid-free, museum-quality paper. It sells for $25. | ||
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