In January of this year (2024) my younger brother and I made a shocking discovery, our eldest brother lying in his bed, seemingly tranquil and at peace. He had died of heart failure in his sleep. A sad moment for him as he was only 64 and for us as we had lost a funny, highly intelligent and articulate man.
We had a known Ali as an unusual person, spending seventy five per cent of his life travelling around the world, living for a time in India. His behaviour at times seemed unorthodox and to some he appeared rude. But in time we recognised this as poor mental health and the high liklihood that he was autisitic but autism was rarely understood in the 1960's. He often commented that he didn't enjoy his childhood and we think this was the first point where his mental health was not in good shape. This was in turn compromised in his mid teens by his use of recreational drugs. which some would say helped him but ultimately they in part caused his death.
There are many artists throughout time who have struggled with mental health, the first one always thinks of is of course Vincent Van Gogh, He was born in 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands, and was the second of 6 children and in his childhood, he was described as serious, quiet and thoughtful but ultimately melancholy and sad,
This is the only know photograph of Van Gogh taken by Dutch photographer Jacobus de Louw in 1873.
In that same year of 1873 when he was 20, he got a job at the Groupil Gallery in London. where he had daily contact with works of art in London which kindled his appreciation of paintings and drawings. Unfortunately Van Gogh turned out to be an awkward employee, apparently, lacking tact. He lost his job at the gallery leaving him unemployed and increasingly reliant on the financial and emotional support of his older brother Theo (Solly 2018). His emotional state was not helped by a rejected marriage proposal to a woman whom he clearly adored.
Several diagnoses have, over the years been proposed for Vincent van Gogh's mental health issues, with schizophrenia being one of them. However, this diagnosis seems improbable due to the absence of fundamental symptoms of the disorder and the nature of van Gogh's psychotic episodes, which involved amnesia and confusion but allowed for complete recovery. Although late-onset schizophrenia was diagnosed in one of his sisters, van Gogh’s case does not strongly support this condition.
The possibility of neurosyphilis is also considered, especially given his lifestyle and the fact that he was treated for gonorrhea in 1882. However, he did not display any of the typical symptoms of neurosyphilis, neither he did he display persistent impairments in mental or physical functions of that suggested illness. For a while there was a theory that he may have suffered from epilepsy because of the way he depicted images in his paintings such as in Starry Starry night (see below image) where the moon has a type of aura around it, however that theory has now been dropped
Van Gogh's history of prolonged depression, particularly following personal and career disappointments, suggests he may have been bipolar. His mood oscillated between depressive episodes and periods of intense energy, enthusiasm, and productivity, His use of absinthe, which has convulsant properties, may have triggered seizures and worsened his mental state, although his seizures were partial rather than full grand-mal.
This could have been activated by absinthe use, and may have contributed to his psychotic episodes, mood swings, and eventual decline.
Van Gogh’s emotional extremes, including irritability and religiosity, may be evidence of an 'epileptoid' temperament. His final depressive episode, following his recovery from illness and concerns about his brother's support, likely precipitated his tragic suicide, exacerbated by his history of reacting to losses with severe depression. (Blumer, 2002)
Another artist who displayed interesting behaviour was Salavdor Dali who was famous for his unusual behaviour both in his personal life and also his art. Although there is a wealth of literature on Salvador Dalí, nobody has attempted fully to investigate the truth behind his supposed ‘madness’. There are many opinionated and conflicting comments which have been made in books and essays that often appear to lack explanation or evidence. Opinions are generally split. Individuals either perceive the artist to have been a bizarre and mentally disturbed individual, or a compulsive and manipulative liar who feigned his own madness in order to gain success. There is no doubt that his work was unusual, and one of the paintings which I think is excellent and illustrates his unusual behaviour is: Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man by Salvador Dali, 1943, (the Dali Museum)
The relationship between creativity and psychopathology in visual artists has received rather less attention than writers, which is strange if I'm honest. But historcially the idea of questioning the mental health of anyone was not the 'done thing'. Moreover there may have been a reticence to researching this type of thing because it may have fundamentally affected the value of the artists work at the time. This is a theory of mine, but some work has been reported, mainly on the basis of biographical material Karlsson (1970) found the rate of psychosis in great painters to be 35%, well above that for ‘normal’ people (∼2%). Similarly, Schildkraut, Hirschfeld, and Murphy (1996) reported that affective disorders were 10 times more prevalent and the rate of suicidal behaviour three times greater than the average population.
Interestingly it has been suggested that the rate of psychosis in great painters to be 35%, which is apparently well above that for ‘normal’ people (∼2%). That was in 1970 and I wonder if in the intervening years whether that percentage has increased?
There is loads of information online about mental health and how our brains are affected by things and it is suggested that it has a lot to do with how the two sides of our brain interact? Research shows that depression often comes with an imbalance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Essentially, the right hemisphere (RH) tends to be overactive, while the left hemisphere (LH) is under active. But what does that really mean?
It seems the RH has a knack for processing negative emotions, like fear, sadness, and even those pessimistic “glass half-empty” thoughts. When I think about it, that fits with how depression feels—a whirlwind of tumbling thoughts and thinking that pulls people into a negative headspace. The RH also plays a big role in arousal and vigilance, which might explain why sleep disturbances are such a common issue for people with depression.
In addition the RH is heavily involved in self-reflection, which can lead people with depression to withdraw from the world and focus inward. While self-reflection can sometimes be healthy, in depression it often means ruminating endlessly on negative thoughts. On a physiological level, RH dominance is linked with higher cortisol levels—commonly known as the stress hormone. Over time, this can weaken the immune system and increase the risk of developing other illnesses, which might explain why depression often comes hand-in-hand with other health conditions.
What About the LH?
The LH, on the other hand, is like the more cheerful cousin of the brain—it’s more involved in processing pleasurable experiences and making decisions. So, when the LH is under active, it’s not surprising that people with depression experience symptoms like anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure) and indecisiveness.
Fear, Anxiety, and the RH
Here’s another interesting fact: the RH is much better at picking up on fearful stimuli than the LH. When people see something scary—like a fearful face—it’s the RH that lights up the most in brain imaging studies. This could be why heightened anxiety and stress are often tied to depression.
This reflection brings me to the vital fact that the natural world can, and often does help improve how you can feel. These days they call it a number of names but 'Forest Bathing' is the most recent nomenclature for it.
A place that is worth visiting with a bit of a forest bath is Westonburt Arboretum. See photo to your left and this is one of the many avenues of trees that you can wander down, drinking in the positive elements of the natural world.
There is a certain magic in walking along quiet pathways in a woodland, listening to the wind in the trees and the birds chattering and almost without realising you feel good.
I have, over the last few years had an obsession for painting trees and taking photos of foliage and flowers and ferns, I laughingly called it my tree phase but in actual fact it started not long after my husband died of leukaemia leaving me with three small children. I was fortunate that I was able to escape into the world of art and a fantastic teacher called Terry Pegg.
He was fantastically supportive and encouraging but it is only now that my subject matter of trees and woodland stemmed from the need for the natural world.
The painting (see left) was painted a few years ago but I took this photo of it the other day as the early morning winter sun came though the almost shut curtains and hit the picture lighting up what is a fairly dark painting. It is of a scene in a woodland in North Devon. the picture (see below) is of a fern, also in the same woodland.
As I have said there is a connection between the natural world and spending time immersed in it which makes you feel less anxious and more at one. The same can be said for the practice of doing art and being in the zone where all of your worries fade into the background for a while. Therapy in art is used a great deal with helping people who are struggling with their mental health. What would happen if there is no available materials or time to do the art that is so important at any one time in someones life. Searching for information about this subject I came across the website of the Imperial War Museum (https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-did-artists-sketch-in-the-trenches-during-the-first-world-war)
Here is what they say "It is difficult to imagine how anyone trying to survive on the front lines of war, could feel compelled to create art in such a volatile and inhospitable environment. And yet, the volume and complexity of artistic expression that emerged during the First World War was unprecedented."
Looking at the website for the National Army museum it states that any of the artists who accompanied the Army to war used a technique called 'grisaille', which is painting or drawing entirely in shades of grey. By rendering the images in monochrome, they made it easier for engravers to transfer their pictures to printing blocks - but I imagine there was simply not sufficient art materials available to create any complex artwork in the field (https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/painting-line-fire)
It is suggested that ,any of the artists who accompanied the Army to war used a technique called 'grisaille', which is painting or drawing entirely in shades of grey. By rendering the images in monochrome, they made it easier for engravers to transfer their pictures to printing blocks - but I imagine there was simply not sufficient art materials available to create.
Art and Neuro Diversion.
Neuro Diversion is a relatively new term (to me at any rate). The reason why I say this is because when I was young the term dyslexic hadn't really been invented as such. It most likely had a different nam, but, the net result for most of the young population who were attending school was a label of 'thick' or 'doesn't concentrate' or a 'daydreamer". I got most of those labels during my school years and although for the most part I enjoyed school, it was a frustratingly narrow minded institution.
In the paper Art, Design and Neurodiversity (Damiani 2017) suggests that "Research in Art and Design, with interrelations with Neurodiversity and Art Education, has shown that the decision to study art, for example for dyslexic students, is higher than other cases. Students with dyslexia, for example, often show and demonstrate artistic abilities and creative approach of thinking and of examining data.
This is certainly the case in many instances which I witnessed when working at an Independent School where there were students who were neurodivergent, (historically Sidcot excelled in educating these specialist young people). In one instance a young student, struggled with his dyslexia to the point where he could not draw a straight line with a ruler. The Head of Art at that time was himself, dyslexic, and gave the student some plasticene and a camera and told him to make an animation. The student excelled in this request and gained a A in GCSE. The animation was exquisite and that same student eventually got a job with Arrdman Animation.
From my perspective, the people who had dyslexia were the ones who were good at art, they had an affinity with creative tasks. This is absolutely the same story with my daughter Meg who from very young thought in 3D, she struggled at school but was always good at art, particularly 3D art. It was at university that she was diagnosed with processing issues and was very dyslexic. Like many dyslexics when she was
young she struggled to understand how to tell the time on an analogue clock. Just past her mid twenties she still finds it hard to understand that concept. But she has a BA in Scenic Arts and a Masters in Set Design so her Neurodiversity did not hold her back.
Matthew Wong
Matthew Wong (March 8, 1984 – October 2, 2019) was a Canadian artist, born in Toronto. His family emigrated to Hong Kong when Wong was seven, but when he was fifteen, his family returned to Canada, to support the treatment of Wong's autism. Matthew Wong was self-taught as a painter and he received critical acclaim for his work before his death in 2019 at the age of 35.
Wong suffered from Tourette Syndrome as well from depression throughout his adult life. He died by suicide in 2019 at age 35. To be honest I had not heard much about Matthew Wong, until some friends of mine saw an exhibition of his work which was on at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
His Edmonton studio remains untouched.
Wongs artwork is left as a reminder of what a wonderful artist he was, I love his work and it reminds me of a mix between Georgia O'Keef and Alfred Ramos Martinez (1871 -1946).
This last piece of information is, in many ways, so sad. It reminds me of a student I once knew, whose life was art, he was hugely skilled, and was always in the art department where I worked doing his art. He had an accident whilst playing rugby, which necessitated two of his upper vertebrae to be fused together which meant he could only stand and do his art. A few years later he took his own life. Now whether the accident had any impact on his mental health is a leading question and not one that can truthfully be answered. But knowing him as I did, my suspicion is that his life was his art and when this became difficult it affected him in more ways than we can imagine.
Nick Pirrie ( Local Arist)
The practicing of art is a need, for some people. I have a close family friend for whom art is his life. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was young. He paints avidly and has so much work that he has to hire storage to house his completed work. It is what keeps him alive so to speak, without it, his mental health would suffer greatly. I met up with Nick last week to see his most recent work. We chatted about what it was like to attend a convent school where we both went in the late 1960's, and although most of the nuns were kind and gentle there were a couple who were aggressive and violent. In those days it seemed that most of us just thought that this was the way it was, but of course now we know different.
Nick is a very dedicated artist painting every day, as it helps his thought processes. Here are some examples of his most recent work:-
I love Nicks work, it has a vibrancy to it and each painting feels very alive.
Below is an image of Nick in his sitting room, Surrounded by his work on the walls around him.
Above image is of an outdoor storage area where a small portion of his artwork is stored.
Nicks studio is remarkably tidy (although he did admit that his younger brother and sister helped him tidy it)
The Epiphany
During the summer of 2024, I spent some time in Cornwall with my daughter Martha. We visited a Georgian mansion called Pencarrow House. It it privately owned, and is still lived in by the Molesworth-St Aubyns who settled there in the 1500's. The house opened to the public in the 1970's and the family are hands on with the every day running of the estate.
The house itself is fascinating but the room which made a real impression on me was the music room which had a Rococo plaster ceiling. However, we were informed at the beginning of the tour that no photographing of the interior was allowed. To be honest I was gutted as they were so unusual that they struck a chord with me. When we had finished the tour, we headed for the cafe and had a cream tea, and on a whim I emailed the estate manager and told her I was doing a degree in art and wanted to photograph the ceiling. They immediately rang me and said they would take Martha and I back in to take the photos, which was really kind and thoughtful of them.
The main reason they struck such a chord was that it tied in so well with my research on mental health in art (interestingly I mentioned this to the woman who showed us around and she said that like many families, this family was no stranger to mental health issues in its history)
Rococo Ceiling
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
When I speak of epiphany, what I mean by this is, in my eyes, metaphorically the emotional shift into depression is like falling into the autumn of emotion, leaves curl and die, and then into winter with its cold, grey skies and dark days with everything frozen in place If, in time you are helped, the heaviness begins to lift and the spring is in sight with lightness and full of hope, and finally summer when your emotions feel alive and happiness has returned. This also applies to people who suffer from SAD (season affective disorder), where their mood is effected by the lack of light in the short winter days.
These amazing plaster images show beautifully this analogy, and it was these images which inspired (in part) the perceived 'seasons of emotion', which translate into the bowls that I make.
Bowl Making
Over the last year I have been experimenting with cement and using it to make bowls. It is a medium that I love, with its austere, brutalist look. As part of my journey I have also combined my love for cement with my love for glass. But sustainably, glass is a material which hold so much promise. It can be reused, recycled and used in building work. For me, the re-use idea is one that I would like to take forward. I decided to look into using industrial glass instead of specific art glass. My initial enthusiasm was brought to a sudden slow-down, as I juggled with issues with using this industrial glass in an artist setting. (Please see my project report on Float Glass). Suffice to say I stumbled and tripped over problems until I, quite by accident discovered that I was actually worrying unnecessarily, as all I needed to do was to use newer off cuts (so effectively still sustainable as it would otherwise gone into the skip) and to clean it with only soap and water. During my trial with old greenhouse glass, it became evident that glass becomes damaged with UV and other possible externals issues like minute scratches which old onto dirt and this makes it hard to effectively clean. Industrial glass is made by floating molton glass onto molton tin, I shall refer to it as float glass.
Art glass (Bullseye) has a full fuse temperature of 804° and although it is tempting to use is as it is a proven material, there are two reasons for not using it. The first is down to recycling and sustainability: art glass can be recycled, however, my aim was to try to use a type of glass which would otherwise go to landfill. Industrial glass is not generally recycled, due to concern about contamination with other materials and difficulty in sorting different types of glass, high cost of processing and a general lack of established markets. Instead it is often used as aggregate in road building. (Circular economy 2018 - accessed 12/02/2025).
As my work is concerned with light and the how the natural world supports poor mental health in a good way, I was keen to somehow include an element of it in my fused glass. I had seen on social media that it was possible to fuse ferns into art glass, and I was interested in having a go. What I found was that is was indeed possible to fuse ferns in between art glass (Bullseye), however, the image was thin and not as clear as I wanted. What was interesting was that when I tried fusing ferns between two pieces of float glass, the image was much clearer, which was really exciting. I'm not entirely certain why this should be, but doing a bit of research about the subject, it would appear that ferns (and indeed bracken) contain components which when burnt, act like a flux, which would allow the temperature of the glass to melt at a lower temperature, thus allowing the glass in contact with the fern/bracken to melt slightly more that the glass which is not.
Why did I Choose a Fern?
I chose the fern as it is a favourite woodland plant of mine and it symbolises the positive effect that the natural world shares with us, improving our state of mind and mental health and this is the primary reason for using these particular woodland plants.
With the idea, that walking in nature and more specifically walking in a woodland, the fern is a common sight, growing in the shade of it's tree neighbours. There is something absolutely magical about the new unfurling fronds of a fern in the springtime.
The Glass Experiment
Over the last few years I have had a love and interest in glass fusing, initially with art glass. Bullseye glass which is made in the USA, is the glass I generally use, however I have tried fusing antique offcuts from a friend of mine who is a stained glass artist, often repairing ancient church windows. Using some of these offcuts I have tried fusing this old glass with new Bullseye with limited success. The reason for this is that different glass will expand at different rated depending on the heat applied. This called COE (Co-Efficient of Expansion) and this is one of the most important technical aspects of Glass Fusing. In physics terms, Coefficient of Expansion describes how much a material will expand for each degree of temperature increase.
It would have been easy to have just carrying on with Bullseye glass, after all, glass is a sustainable product is it not? Having said that, Bullseye glass comes from Oregan (Bullseye.com) and was set up by three art students:
Their names were Ray Ahlgren, Dan Schwoerer, and Boyce Lundstrom.
These three men set up a business in an old house in 1974 and have never looked back. And considering the popularity of glass as a craft, they clearly made the right choice. They built their factory with scraps repurposed from a shipyard. And, their products—hand-rolled sheets for the stained glass trade—were made from recycled bottle cullet. So they were an innovative team of students.
The nice thing about Bulleye is that it is easy to use and there are some amazing effect that you can get. A while ago I did. a course on glass alchemy which illustrated beautifully the different effects of some the glass, like any glass that has selenium or sulphur will react with copper or silver.
Image above shows how copper oxide reacts with normal Tekta Glass.
Image above shows examples of red glass
reacting with silver (top left of the photo).
In order to be more sustainable with this particular project I have decided to work with industrial float glass. This glass is waste glass from my local builders merchant, and are offcuts which are scrap left over from cutting glass for windows and doors.
When I started researching whether it was possible to use industrial float glass, I was unsure if it was even possible.
What was interesting was that float glass is fuseable and more importantly for some reason, ferns and bracken seem to make a better image in float glass compared to Bullseye glass. I'm not sure why this should be but I am elated that this is the case.
Here below is an example of a fern in Bullseye glass. The fern has broken up, whereas the fern fired between two pieces of float glass seemed to cope with the heat of the kiln better.
The image on the left shows far more superior image of a fern than the one on the right. However, as you can see the right hand image has a slightly opaque look, and is not a clear view. This is because it has suffered from what is called 'bloom' which is an undesirable effect of firing float glass. Please view my report into float glass on mt blog entitled - ? I found that old, uv damaged float glass was more likely to have a bloom effect than float glass which had recently been manufactured.
I also find that as I fire float glass, I am constantly learning, So for example, I recently did a firing in my kiln which is in my workshop. There is no heating in the workshop and the ouside winter temperature had fallen to around -3°c. The net result of this was that a firing that I had put on had not fused properly. Now this is no surprise really, but I've never had this happen before. There is one further observation, and that is: there maybe a maximum size of float glass piece with a fern that can be fired. The maximum size appears to be 9cm. I have done a few that have been 10cm and larger, and they have not fired properly, leaving the fern semi-burned and with a bubble in the glass. Despite doing a bubble squeeze firing (although is has now occurred to me that I was using a Bullseye firing schedule slightly adapted for float by firing at 821°C rather than 804°C) Here is an image of the 10cm piece of glass which has a small fern between the two layers.
There appears to be some, what looks like bloom around the leaf, bu I suspect that is water moisture. I normally wash the glass in warm soapy water, and it is more than possible that the warm glass had a small amount of condensation on the glass as it went into the kiln. This fact make me further suspect that firing below a atmosphere temperature of 10°C is important.
References:
Bullseye.com accessed 6/3/25
• Flor-Henry, P., Tomer, R., & Kimerling, R. (2004). Hemispheric asymmetry in depression. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 29(5), pp. 313–322.
• Henriques, J. B., & Davidson, R. J. (1991). Left frontal hypo-activation in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100(4), pp. 535–545.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-did-artists-sketch-in-the-trenches-during-the-first-world-war (accessed on 11/12/24)
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/painting-line-fire. (accessed on 11/12/24)
Luca M. Damiani, Art, Design and Neurodiversity (2017),
Mathew Wong (https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/visit/whats-on/exhibitions/overview-past-exhibitions/matthew-wong-vincent-van-gogh) accessed 21/1/25
Circular economy: UkGBC Sustainability 360 survey findings 2017, UKGBC 2018)
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