Redacted Collage Series

For Jenny Lawson, dinner parties and social events are total nightmares. Sometimes, her panicked ramblings are so horrific that people are often rendered speechless. There is this continuous conversation occurring in her mind that tells her to make adjustments to not seem so boring or too adventurous. She often falls into severe panic attacks where she cannot catch her breath and is desperately looking for a means of escape from herself.

Overview

For this first project, I’d like to investigate the chapter “And Then I Got Stabbed in the Face by a Serial Killer,” where Jenny lawson discusses the difficult truths of the pains of living with a mental illness.

Project Concept

For this project, I’d like to collect materials that could be used to create a series of artworks that provides some insight into a mind controlled by intense feelings of anxiety. The materials that I had in mind are found/personal imagery, typography, colored/patterned paper, magazine clippings, and colored pens/markers.

Project Application

Once this project is complete, it is my intention to utilize the final product to create a book jacket for the hardback edition of Jenny Lawson’s novel Let’s pretend This Never Happened. This cover will require the creation of an appealing graphic that encourages the consumer to pick up the book and look through it. The cover graphic sets a mood or hints at what the reader might experience inside its covers.

“It’s been my experience that people always assume that generalized anxiety disorder is preferable to social anxiety disorder, because it sounds more vague and unthreatening, but those people are totally wrong. For me, having generalized anxiety disorder is basically like having all of the other anxiety disorders smooshed into one. Even the ones that aren’t recognized by modern science.”

— Jenny Lawson

Background

By definition, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common mental health condition characterized by excessive, persistent, and uncontrollable worry and anxiety about a variety of everyday events or situations. It can come in all different forms and symptoms like restlessness, tension, irritability, and fatigue. All of this to say that life is difficult when having a mental illness.

Project Beginnings

To begin, I painted a layer of black paint onto the boards so that when the elements were applied on top, the white background didn’t distract from the materials on top.

Project Examination

Piece by piece each element was applied to the boards using a weak adhesive so that elements can be changed at a later date if need be.

“One moment I’m perfectly fine and the next I feel a wave of nausea, then panic. Then I can’t catch my breath and I know I’m about to lose control and all I want to do is escape. Except that the one thing I can’t escape from is the very thing I want to run away from… me.”

— Jenny Lawson

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