NAMI ink work/ Calendar Project

These are illustrations I did for a calendar project in the summer of 2011 for my Junior Illustration class. We were told to pick a non profit organization from a list handed to us by our teacher and then illustrate every month. It was a fun but stressful project and I'm grateful for it because I feel I really grew in my pen and ink skills in this class and am pretty stoked about some of the individual pieces themselves.

The organization I chose was NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health)

this is who they are:

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI advocates for access to services, treatment, supports and research and is steadfast in its commitment to raising awareness and building a community of hope for all of those in need.
From its inception in 1979, NAMI has been dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. (taken from the NAMI website)

Each piece represents a mental illness and in the final product there was a side note about what the mental illness was as well as including a quick fact about the illness. From the bottom to the top this is what the pictures are meant to represent:

1.Autism

2. Borderline DX

3.Bipolar DX

4.Depression

5.Dissociative

6.Eating DX

7.Panic DX

8. PTSD

9.Schizophrenia

10. Seasonal Affective DX

11.Suicide

OCD was included in this series, however I wasn't too pleased about the quality of that single piece so that's why you don't see it. Overall though it was a really cool project and a great way to learn how art and community can be tied together (which is something I have been trying to seek out during my college education.) Hopefully I can have the full final project posted up soon (if the files work).

This one was one of my favorite pieces for a long time. I created it in 2011 my Sophomore year and MICA and it was one of the more meaningful pieces for me because it combined everything I had been practicing and trying to master (with pen ink and linework) but it was also a piece that meant a great deal to me spiritually as well. It speaks about a connection about what it means to seek God and conversely have God seeking you. The Bible talks a lot about the concept of election and being chosen, hand picked by God to inherit eternal life as well as a glorious inheritance laid up for his people in Heaven (not because of favoritism or because anyone is better than anyone else) but rather he makes his appeal to all people and yet calls to us individually. I know I felt this and went after it in my life (best decision ever) and so made work about it.

Although I was in a much better place in my life when I made this, I was still thirsty and still needed healing to be done on a personal level. I also saw what life was like for others and realized they were dead and thirsty too. True there is a lot of pain there, but also a lot of hope on the part of the central character and also compassion, because no one makes that light shine and dark places, it just does because it cares for people, it hears them and most of all answers them. I guess that's why I love it so much.