My message I will be representing with my expression is “finding beauty in darkness”. I picked this message because I, personally, have dealt with this type of situation. I relate this message to finding self-love, because you feel like you don’t mean anything to anyone when you’re in that “dark” state of mind. That state of mind can be dangerous. I felt this was a good topic to talk about because depression is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. Many people lose their lives through battles of depression. Suicide happens to be the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. (Prevention) But you’ll eventually find that part of you that you love and will learn to love who you are. Many people suffer from this shared experience, I know a few personally. It can be a struggle but, through spending more time with yourself and your thoughts, you can eventually learn that all you need is yourself and to love yourself. Edgar allen Poe once said “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” (Poe) This quote gives a good example of what it feels like to be in these situations. You can feel lost and afraid, but can dream dreams no one can think of.

My expression will be called “Finding Your Wings”. This drawing will show a girl in the dark finding a glaring light. That glaring light with be coming from these pair of wings she finds. Once she reaches out to the wings to touch them, they fly away. She starts to get sad because they were so beautiful, but little did she know, the wings flew right around to attach themselves to her. Once they were attached, she does one huge flap of the wings and all the darkness rolls away. The wings represent the love and joy that this girl lacks in herself. Those wings belong to her, she just needed to find them. She traveled through darkness which can represent depression or self-hatred towards her. She would think she’s all alone in this darkness but she’s not, she has herself. I used colors, such as yellow, black and gray, to represent light and dark. The yellow would be coming from the wings which is shining through the darkness.

I used the glowing wings as inspiration from the artist Muhammed Salah from his work The Light to my Heart. This work of his had a “glowing” girl and a boy who was “darkness”. That boy found a “light” to his heart. He found someone who can brighten himself up. (Salah) Also, In B. Vigil’s poem Beauty in Darkness she describes how in everything beautiful there can be something dark. Like how you can’t see other people suffering. “She recklessly wears her heart where the soulless monsters feast.” (Vigil) This shows how people can get taken advantage of for their kindness.

What I want people to take away from my expression is that it may seem tough now, but eventually you will find your “wings” and fly. You will find yourself in the darkness and will love what you see. These things do take time but you will eventually find yourself and will feel 100% better. Stephen Fry has stated that in a letter he had sent to a fan who was dealing with sever depression. He had also dealt with it before and knew how hard it was. He compared depression to weather. “It’s real. You can’t change it by wishing it away. If it’s dark and rainy, it’s really dark and rainy and you can’t alter it. It might be dark and rainy two weeks in a row. BUT. It will be sunny one day. It isn’t under one’s control at to when some comes out, but it will. One day.” (Fry) He makes perfect sense of these type of moods, you can’t control it but it will all get better sooner or later.

 

 

References

Fry, Stephen. "20 Amazing Letters Worth reading." 10 April 2006. TwistedSifter.com. 13 November 2020.

Poe, Edgar Allen. BrainyQuote. n.d. 13 November 2020.

Prevention, American Foundation for Suicide. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. n.d. 13 November 2020.

Salah, Muhammed. The Light to My heart.

Vigil, B. Facebook. 21 February 2018. 13 November 2020.