Duality

“Duality”

By Noel JohnsonMediums: Cardstock paper, mounting tape

In this piece, I strived to capture my personal experience with mental health struggles. Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This left me battling bouts of depression, experiencing flashbacks, and being embarrassed by my peculiar triggers. There are so many days where I wish I could take it away and not have to deal with it anymore. However, on my good days, even though its considered an illness, I appreciate the strength that it has given me. I fully believe that this obstacle in my life is one of the reasons I have grown to be a better, stronger person through recovery and care.

In our society people like me who have a mental illness are frequently misunderstood and mislabeled; and our illnesses are often seen as only detrimental, despite the good they have the potential to bring to us with support and help. These illnesses have a dualistic quality about them. They are, indeed, difficult to deal with and often have negative effects on our day to day lives; but, they also have the potential to make us stronger if we learn to overcome and cope with them. For these reason, I chose to do a black dragon and a white dragon facing one another. The white representing the potential good to come out of these obstacles in life, and the black representing all the negative aspects of having an illness. I chose to use dragons as a representation of mental illness because I think a mystical creature does a more effective job of showing that these illnesses are a mental problem and not a physical one (both mental illness and dragon stories are things that lie within the human mind) and because of how drastically they differ between Western and Eastern mythology. In Western mythology dragons are depictions of sin and evil. However, in the ladder, dragons represent regality and good; they are guardians of water, life, and royalty. This is slightly more emphasized by their eye color. Orange for the burning harm of fire and blue for the healing properties of water. Despite all their differences, although, they are made of the same materials and patterns, thus unifying them in a way. Overall, this piece captures the Daoist belief of Yin and Yang, that darkness is necessary for there to be light, and the application of this philosophy to mine and many others’ mental health journey.