Inside is the exploration of my personal experience with anxiety. I experience what some people would call “high functioning anxiety”. High functioning anxiety “describes an individual who, despite feeling anxious, seems able to effectively manage the demands of day-to-day life.” While this definition might seem to express my daily existence, it didn’t properly express what that means or feels like internally. In an act of reclaiming my reality, I created a wall collage of abstract and representational mixed media artworks that truly expresses what anxiety looks and feels like to me. Often times the experience is chaotic, confusing, overwhelming, over stimulating, painful, crippling and numbing. Anxiety isn’t just a state of mental health. It’s a physical, emotional, and psychological battle. Inside is my way of finding control over my mental health when my mental health feels like it is taking over me. It’s my way of trying to control the chaos of my own feelings, bringing new light to an under appreciated diagnoses.

April 17th to May 1st 2023 at 84 Wyndham Street N, Guelph ON N1H 4E8

All image taken by Chanel DesRoches