Intervention

 For my project, I chose to focus on men’s mental health because I think it’s an important topic that doesn’t get talked about enough. There’s still a lot of stigma around men showing emotions or asking for help, and I wanted to bring more awareness to that. To represent this idea, I created a painting that shows a man hiding from his feelings. In the painting, a child hiding from a grown man with two different themes for the man and the boy. This represents all the emotions and struggles he is dealing with but feels like he has to hide. I wanted the artwork to capture the pressure many men feel to appear strong and unaffected even when they are struggling inside.

As part of the project, I also researched different statistics about men’s mental health and wrote them on little sticky notes and put them around the painting to show how serious the issue is. Some of the facts I found were really eye opening. For example, men are less likely than women to seek help for depression, anxiety, and other emotional problems.

I didn’t just make the painting and display the facts, I also got the chance to table and present my project at a mental health fair. I am one of six first founding members of the men of color initiative and brought the idea of having the topic of men’s mental health and my painting displayed for the event. It was a great opportunity to actually talk to people about the importance of supporting men’s mental health. A lot of people who came by said they could relate to the message or knew someone who had struggled in silence. It felt really good to know that my project helped start conversations about a topic that usually gets ignored.

Overall, through my art, research, and participation in the mental health fair, I wanted to show that it’s okay for men to feel emotions and to ask for help. I hope my project made a small difference by encouraging more people to be open and supportive when it comes to men’s mental health.

Video from the fair: https://files.fm/u/yrx6e73yya