Concentration by Bree Quill

Concentration Statement

lax2316 — 2015-11-12 18:02:24 UTC

My concentration focuses on exploring how to represent the way other people view me when I am experiencing the symptoms of anxiety, versus what I am actually feeling. For example the famous saying "Nothing is just black and white, its shades of gray." This quote means that many people see many things as one way or the other (black and white), where as in reality things can be many different ways (shades of gray). For example my anxiety. Many people don't even realize I'm experiencing anxiety, because they only see what I am portraying on the outside, which is more often than not how I normally look. Whereas I, myself can almost see my uncontrolled emotions personified through the symptoms I'm experiencing. I will show this theme through depicting the subject matter in black and white as what people see of me when I am experiencing anxiety. And the subject matter that is in color representing the "shades of gray", which is what I experience through my uncontrolled emotions, aka the things people don't see. This also creates contrast between the black and white, and the color in the picture which personifies how for myself It is blatantly obvious to see what I'm experiencing. Where as other people can't see the symptoms, and how these two concepts are always in conflict.

#2

lax2316 — 2015-12-04 15:52:31 UTC

When experiencing an anxiety attack I feel like all my uncontrolled emotions are trying get out of me all at once. It feels like a giant pressure in my chest, which is not only uncomfortable but exaserbates the situation. So I usually try to calm myself and get rid of the pressure by drinking water. In this piece the black ink figure represents what people see of me when I'm experiencing the attack, just someone drinking water. But the blue ink personifies the cooling feeling of calmness and relief of the water washing away the red ink hands of pressure and emotion. The hands in red which personify my uncontrolled emotions trying to climb out while experiencing the attack.

Concentration #3

lax2316 — 2015-12-09 15:23:35 UTC

This piece shows a side effect of anxiety which is increased nervousness. This affects me in that when I am in a serious situation when I am nervous, because I am someone who laughs nervously. I am conscious that it is not the appropriate time to laugh, but again I cannot control it, as it is a socially unacceptable way to express my nervousness. The red figure portrays the feeling of uncontrollable laughter, which I chose the color red because it exemplifies wrongness and negativity. The green hand representing the feeling of urgency in my conscious thought, to cover my mouth to hide the laughing. This green subject being paired with the blue subject also representing my conscious thought, desperately telling myself the words scrawled over and over in the background, to "just please don't laugh."

Concentration #4

lax2316 — 2016-01-13 15:46:01 UTC

This piece exemplifies how before an anxiety attack I feel two tell tale signs of an impending attack. The figure in the middle portraying what everyone sees, the "black and white." The Green figure in the top left depicting how I feel a feeling of wanting to just sink and even melt into the floor to avoid my problems, and ultimately avoid the impending attack. The figure in the bottom right figure interpreting the feeling of all my muscles contracting in my chest that makes me want to curl up into a tight ball and squeezing into the corner of a room. I chose these two colors because they are representative of anxiety and urgency, which I feel while I'm experiencing them.

Concentration #1

lax2316 — 2016-02-08 14:46:55 UTC

This piece symbolizes the way in which sensory input triggers many anxiety attacks. I utilized line to define sound waves in the background to show how noise is one of the main triggers for an anxiety attack. The waves go from thick big lines into smaller lines to symbolize the way over time while the attack begins the noise becomes deafening, where as when dies down , the noise gets drowned out. The face represents the literal way I hold my head during an auditorily triggered attack due to the fact that it calms me down and helps me to not focus on