My Dementia Darlings

Inspiration

In early 2014, Georgia State University had a Q&A showing of the documentary You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't. The documentary follows patient Lee Gorewitz, a sufferer of Alzheimers, in her daily routine and brilliantly captures her impermanent psychological presence. Her struggle to retain her identity inspired me to illustrate this battle and to hopefully garner awareness.

Inspired Works

The subjects of my pieces are all sufferers of debilitating mental diseases that once led spectacular lives. Their diseases have left each vulnerable-stripped of their dignity and sense of self, leaving each essentially naked. With each piece I set up the viewer to take in the image as a typical and expected portrait-the dramatic drapery, the formal poses, however the image presented is anything but expected. In the lore of this series, each individual completely stripped of his or her identity poses for a portrait with mere props and cues of his or her former life.

In my own way I'm praising each person's former life while giving a brazen look at his or her present condition. I aim to affect at least one individual to learn more and to donate in hopes of fighting mental diseases.

Details

A Football star stares blankly holding a championship ball.

Half of an inseparable couple wears her veil from her wedding she no longer remembers.

A former starlet twirls her pearls from a lavish and notorious time before.

A doctor whose steady hands saved hundreds of lives now trembles with a constant uncertainty.

A hard worker once proud of her strength strains to keep her pose.