Table of Contents
Categories and post-by-post guide to my writing and research into the complex relationship between art and mental health
Welcome to Create Me Free where I share all of my deep research into and musings about the complex relationship between art and mental health. While I touch on art as therapy and the benefits of creativity, I also look at the times when creativity exacerbates mental health symptoms. Moreover, I really dig into the ways that our mental health symptoms can impact our creative process, content, productivity, medium choice, and more.
I wanted to make it easier for you to find the different content that I’m sharing here, so I’ve created a Table of Contents.
This will also help you see what types of things I’m writing about so that you can choose to opt into or out of receiving different material. Learn more here about that. You can also choose to receive only a monthly digest.
Essays, Articles, Thoughts Of Mine
Is the Depression Spectrum Really More Of a Circle? Or a Spiral? Or a Keyboard? Adjusting my framework as it relates to my lived experience and to the relationship of mental health to creativity with a focus on understanding “double depression.”
Depression: A Black Dog? An Elephant? A rider on the bus I navigate through life. Why this metaphor makes sense and why it changed from a Lyft passenger to a bus rider.
Semi; Colon: A Grief Tattoo Story. A writing work in progress as I continue to process my father's death ten months in ...
I Live Here: SF ... a look back at a 15 year old project and what feels true and not true for me in San Francisco today. Deep in the archives, a project that was so special to me to become a part of, a lens into how I've changed and stayed in the same
Rediscovering My Old Double Exposure Photos of Georgia O'Keeffe Produces Memories of My Creativity I Hadn't Even Known Had Faded ... "it’s really tough to describe what happened but if I were a Russian nesting doll, the big head was popped off to reveal that there was a same-but-different little me inside ..." See more double exposure photos from my archive here.
On Trying Again To Be The Writer I Really Am, to get my voice and brain back from the inanity of algorithmic writing (there’s also more about artist Kay Sage in this one)
On Turning Outside When Perhaps I Need to Turn Inward. Just some thoughts about where we get our information and inspiration as we design our creative lives ....
The Semi-Lost Art of Letter Writing as a Means of Healing Self and Others Through Connection. Or, this is my letter to you ...
Musings and Memories on Art, Education and Mental Health at 43, 33, 23 … Train of thoughts on my experiences as I begin grad school again and look back on the journey to here
Adding and Subtracting, Writing and Sculpture. About my creative career and how it’s moved from adding to editing as I grow.
Music and Mental Health in Magazines: Revolver Spring 2024. "Smith wrote the songs in her bedroom, transmuting her feelings into furiously immediate tirades. A kind of therapy. A cleanse." - Emma Madden on Siiickbrain
The Research Phase in Writing Feels Like Falling in Love. You have to show up to the page and keep trying to find the right one. And then one day, suddenly, you do, and you’re in love, and you can’t wait to get to the page, and everything glitters and your words come flowing and you fall a little bit more in love with yourself because you are inspired.
Tip: Create a "Brag Book" To Keep You Inspired When You're Losing Your Way. It's easy to get lost when looking forward and trying to plan a creative career; remember to look back sometimes and learn from yourself - you already know a lot!!
Thoughts on Letting Go, Releasing, and the Importance That I Stop "Shoulding" On Myself. Learning to let go of my own high expectations for myself, my own self-judgment and self-criticism, my own sense of internal obligation has been one of the most difficult parts of my creative process.
Honoring Your Inner Artist: Healing Through Owning Your Creativity. I believe that when we fail to become our fullest creative selves, the world loses out.
When The Music Stops ... Music for Mental Health, Mental Health Problems in the Industry, and More: A collection from the archives and an exploration of the early days of forming my questions around the ways in which art can both heal and harm us
Handwriting, Hypergraphia, Hypographia, Creativity, and Mental Health: Exploring the impact of bipolar depression and mania on writing.
Why It Is Important to Support Indie Writers ... A Press Release to Explain To Others. People who put their heart into their work are better for this world than people who are doing things rotely.
Mental Health Reasons I May Not Read Your Writing ... and Please Write It Anyway: Tips for worrying less about likes, comments, shares, subscribers, etc.
Exciting Upcoming APICC Events in San Francisco (May 2024). Creatively exploring themes of loss, resilience, cultural identity, community engagement, and Be(long)ing Here
5 Therapeutic Ways My Rescue Dog Improves My Life. My guest post over at Five Feathers Farmgirl’s Kindness Chronicles about my soulmate dog Katara who passed away a few years ago.
My 2024 Word of the Year: Wellness - How what I most yearn for this year relates to both going deeply inward and spreading broadly outwardRESEARCH AND WRITING ABOUT ART AND MENTAL HEALTH
My First Audio Post:
On Crochet/Craft as Therapy
The Early Days of My Depression Story and how crochet came to help. And excerpt from Crochet Saved My Life.
How Crochet Taught Me Gentleness With Myself: A podcast interview of me with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Mia Hobbs about How Craft Heals
Crochet/Craft to Break the Cycle of Rumination and Reduce Depression Symptoms. An excerpt from Crochet Saved My Life with references to Old Order Amish, Little House on the Prairie, and female depression
Crafting Provides Cross-Body Therapy Which Helps Mental Health. Knitting and crochet are examples of "crossing the midline" activities, offering long-term healing but also have in-the-moment benefits
Things Artists Might Not Need to Give a Hoot About. Letting go of perfection and other “shoulds” - for all artists but I share my crocheter’s lens
Craftivism: Slow and Small and Quiet = Powerful. Most creative ideas need time to simmer, to marinate, to develop organically into what they’re meant to become ... even though it can feel challenging to let that happen
Hands-On Activities as Preventive Self-Care for Total Wellbeing. "By taking just half an hour at some point during the day to meditatively stitch something for myself or someone else I bring my mind and heart back to a place of peace."
Crafting Meaning: How to Find Belonging through Craft. Meaning vs. happiness, feeling good vs. doing good, and how to embrace a crafty community to increase meaning in your life
7 Health Benefits of Crafting for People with Age-Related Memory Loss. Crochet for Late-Stage Alzheimer's and protective benefits of crafting for the brain
Crochet as Therapy in Academic Research. Or how my own lived experience ultimately made me a reference-able expert in a developing niche ...
Plus Mandalas for Marinke
In 2024, I started re-sharing the Mandalas for Marinke project from almost a decade before:
On Mandalas, Music, and Color as Therapy for Depression. Looking back at five more contributions to the Mandalas for Marinke project that raised awareness about depression, suicide, and crafting as therapy.
Now-Closed Small Yarn Store Had Contributed 50 Mandalas to Crochet Project Raising Awareness about Depression and Crafting to Heal. A look back at a Mandalas for Marinke post and a reminder to support your local yarn/art/craft stores and artisans.
Depression in Schizophrenia, in People of Color, Depicted in Dance ... Honored by Beginner and Expert Crocheters Alike. Looking back at five more contributions to the Mandalas for Marinke project that raised awareness about depression, suicide, and crafting as therapy.
Benefits of Crochet for Ten Symptoms of Depression. Crafting to heal + 5 more beautiful, colorful crochet mandalas to raise awareness about depression survival
And Threadstack
What is THREADSTACK? A creative community of knitters, crocheters, weavers, embroiderers, felters, etc. and a directory of Substackers writing about this.
THREADSTACK DIRECTORY. A collection of Substack newsletters about knitting, crochet, embroidery, weaving, sewing and more ...
ANNOUNCING: Share Your Weekly THREADSTACK Community News and Links
Come Connect Around This Question: How does your yarn/thread craft connect you with others?
Interviews with Artists and Writers About Mental Health and Creativity
I interview contemporary artists and writers (and sometimes other people like psychologists) about their experiences, thoughts, and research into the complex relationship between art and mental health
Visual interviews
Sometimes we don’t have the words to explain something. Or we have some words but the words aren’t enough. Neurodivergence, mental and physical health challenges, etc. can sometimes limit our words. And some people just think in images. For all of those reasons, I’ve launched visual interviews - I ask the questions in words and people respond in images.
Illustrator Sue Clancy shares sketchbook images with a little text in the first visual interview here on Create Me Free.
Photographer Perfectlight shared a variety of striking images that get at the heart of how creativity and wellness may intersect
27 Emotions in Images: A Variation on a Visual Interview. The feelings that images from art history evoke for Victoria K. Walker from Beyond Bloomsbury
Saxxon is an artist-writer-musician and author of the book Suburban Gargoyle.
Christine Castigliano adapted her upcoming graphic novel "Meet Your Monkeys: Make Friends with the Meanies and Imps that Rule Your Mind to respond to the questions about art and mental health.
Lyly is a self-taught artist from France who shared a combination of handwriting and images in her response.
And uniquely: one from The Lizzy Co Show that was answered in music/sound art
Interviews with artists
Interview with Artist Sue Clancy on her history as an LGBTQ+ deaf female artist growing up in a religious-conservative culture, how art and some great people helped along the way, and some of the transitions she’s experienced in how she sees the value of her artwork as a process in her life.
Meet Neurodivergent Playwright Kari Bentley-Quinn through this art and mental health interview. "Protecting your mental health and working towards healing your traumas and wounds is the best way to foster your creativity."
Interview with Feminist Thread Artist Ellen Schinderman. "If even one person feels less uncomfortable or unhappy about their body, their sexuality, sex, and what we’re taught, because of my art, then I’ve done my job."
Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva. "Just the taking of a photograph and listening to someone’s story can help. When you combine photography with activism at the grassroots level, there is no telling the multitudes of ways it can help"
Interview with Street Photographer Neil Milton: How imposter syndrome, the pandemic and going to therapy relate to the creativity in music and street photography.
Slow Crafting: An Interview with Writer/Artist Yarrow Magdalena. "I find it therapeutic to have reminders of my ability to create and recreate around me."
Art and Mental Health Interview with Multidisciplinary Creative J. Moore. "Art helps us to share thoughts for which we don't always have words, so we can communicate more about where we are at, and share concepts that are very complex."
Meet Writer/Creative Tricia Easter in this Art and Mental Health Interview. "The biggest benefit of creating is the joy I feel. I’m learning that joy is the panacea to fear, so the more I create, the more joy I feel, helping to edge out fear."
Art and Mental Health Interview with Writer, Reader and Musician Alex Yalen: “Art is a direct connection to the beauty and the pain of human experience."
Knitting Heals: Interview with Stroke Survivor Rebecca Robinson. Followed by related excerpts from my research and writing for the book Crochet Saved My Life: The Mental and Physical Health Benefits of Crochet
Passing the Torch: Northern California Liberty Crochet Mural Moves From One Hand to Another in Display of Solidarity for Women’s Reproductive Rights. Kathryn Vercillo In Conversation with Marie K. Lee and Jen LaMastra
Art and Mental Health Interview with writer and visual artist Ruth. "Creativity is a way of life for me and how I interact with the world--- it's one of curiosity, play, meaning making, a beholder of reality and truth-telling."
Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan.
Interview with “poet, writer and apprentice creator of monochrome portraits” Mya Dexter. On social anxiety, angst-ridden writing, writing as therapy, drawing for healing and more.
Interview with Tamzin of Resurface. On holding space and reflecting people's energy back to themselves via Soul Signs, taking care of our mental health, and how health can impact creativity.
Interview with Helen Conway. "Mental ill health is undoubtedly helped by art making but it also makes the art making harder."
Interview: A Conversation with Claudia Wool in English and Spanish: About the creative nourishment of a journalist and textile creator's nomadic family lifestyle
Crochet Heals: Interview with Chason & Tumaini on Mindful crochet as an act of kindness healing individuals and communities
Crochet Heals: Interview with Athena Field. “Crochet calms the mind, soothes the soul and makes the black dog dance in a pretty little dress.”
Crochet Heals Interview: Ecocrafter The Crafty Therapist. How crochet helped Janferie heal through the bereavement of losing a baby ...
Art and Mental Health Interview with Musician, Singer, Writer, Artist Mark including Visual Responses: "When I feel stable and happy my art looks more professional, during intense emotion it is more abstract and metaphysical stuff."
Art and Mental Health Interview with Photographer/Painter/Writer Terry Lee Nelson. "I worked and wrote and drew a little and survived over the next six years completing 35 works on canvas and six books in the Franklin Diaries."
Margaret's Story of Crochet Healing Depression. "It was all backwards – I didn't realize I was depressed until I started to feel better, and I started to feel better when I started to crochet.”
D on the pressure to become an artist. Many people are discouraged from becoming artists ... D was actually pressured the opposite way as a child and it ruined art for them for a time!
Bunni on how depression and feelings of worthlessness affect art making. Depression / BPD symptoms keep Bunni's artwork small in scale, creating characters that reflect who they wish that they could be. And yet, the urge to keep creating is there, and doing so does help Bunni, particularly in terms of reducing self harm behavior.
A.F on how creating art is a compulsion that helps soothe anxiety and PTSD … but also that the symptoms of those conditions have impacted style, productivity, and self-worth as it relates to the business of selling art.
6 Artists Respond to How Health Challenges Changed Their Choice of Medium. Exploring how tweaking a medium can allow for creativity in the face of challenges that were stifling it
In Brief: 7 Artists Answer A Series of Questions About Art and Mental Health
How do mental health symptoms impact/alter/inspire creative process? 13 creatives respond in their own unique ways about how the mind impacts the creative process ...
17 Creatives Answer: "How do mental health symptoms impact/alter/inspire creative content?" How does the content of what you create change because of your mental state, life circumstances, the way that your brain works?
Interviews with writers
The Cacao Muse: How Storytelling Brings Together Chocolate, Health, Creativity, and Sustainability. Author interview with Birgitte Rasine on the deep research that went into her children's novel that she is serializing here on Substack ... and so much more ....
Interview with Robin Reardon. On music as it relates to the writing process, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, how her work has positively impacted queer teens, and her Myers-Briggs …
Interview with Writer Jane Clark of Story Carriers. "Art is a form of soul expression and being deprived (or depriving the self) of creative expression is not benign"
Interview with Writer and Actor Jenn Zuko. How writing, acting and the combat arts have been healing for this neuro-spicy creative and others around her
Interview with Lauren Holt. “On pausing to find balance when creativity moves from catharsis into compulsion ...”
Interview with June Girvin. How knitting, writing, gardening, and reading are the same and different as creative tasks.
Interview with Leon Macfayden. "Before I started writing, I saw my depression and pain as entirely negative. Now I see it all as material - and as a chance to make a difference to others."
Interview with Russell Nohelty. "Art can be a wonderful way to work out your feelings & explore your relationship with the world. It's very easy, though, for a symbiotic relationship with art to degrade into a parasitic one."
Interview with Key Ocho of Inner Garden Alchemy. "Like how a gardener tends to their garden by sowing seeds, eliminating weeds, and harvesting, we must also care for our inner gardens."
Interview with Writer Samantha Rose McRae: A journey through depression, storytelling, writing to heal and one woman's experience of a creative life ...
Interview with Writer and Model Nessa Nachelle: "My mental health symptoms definitely altered productivity creatively and professionally. Currently, however, I am just focusing on what I can control and what I can do right here and right now."
Wendi Gordon of Changing Lives newsletter who says “I write to change lives, starting with my own.”
Interview with Alex of Loreteller. "Everything is: design | narrative | storytelling | experience | spirituality"
Interview with Sara London, Author of The Performance Therapist and Authentic Therapeutic Identity
Interview with Peter Smetanick. "Art and writing for me comes from the soul, but the mind can be a tricky place, with dark corners. Writing brings me to understand the deeper parts of my being."
Akmaral: Author Interview with Novelist Judith Lindbergh. "Imagine a culture where women didn’t have to prove their value or their strength, where they didn’t have to fight for their right to personhood, where they were fierce and free to choose ..."
Interviews with others
Art and Mental Health Interview with Martin Greenwald, M.D. of Socratic Psychiatrist. What is the role of art for patients hospitalized with severe mental illness? What, if anything, is the relationship between creativity and mental health? One psychiatrist's perspective ...
16 Writers/Artists/Thinkers Share Book Recommendations. Along with suggestions for photographers, music, documentaries and more that are worth checking out in the realm of art+mental health
Interviews others have done of me
At Inner Workings, Rae Katz interviews women about chronic illness for her Lady’s Illness Library. We discuss my experiences with depression, perimenopause, how to redefine success in the face of chronic illness, and staying curious about what’s on your own next page.
Kathryn Vercillo on writer's block, the editing process, reading as research, and being gentle with yourself: An interview originally published by CeciliaIvy.com
Leon Macfayden and I discussed some of my findings from the research I’m doing into the complex relationship between art and mental health, my own lived experience with depression and what “recovery” might mean, and the role my Masters in Psychological Counseling played into all of this.
At Changing Lives, Wendi Gordon and I talked about my book The Artist’s Mind: why I wanted to write this book, how I chose the artists that are included, the sources used to research, what I learned that surprised me, and how writing the book impacted my own mental health and creativity.
Reflections on an author interview from over a decade ago and how much is still true. Kathryn Vercillo on book writing and marketing, crocheting to heal, and the advice to "Be You"
At Sue Clancy’s site we discussed the book as well: why I wrote a book about it instead of doing something like a podcast, and why it’s about artists instead of other careers. We also discussed the impact of war, global trauma, racism, sexism, and other aspects that intersect with individual mental health and the role art plays there. We also talk about self-care, staying inspired, and my pups.
At Wolf Interviews, we discuss ways that creativity can sometimes help overcome symptoms of depression but also the dangers of elevating that ideal to some magical level at the cost of wellness.
At RUINS, William Collen and I discuss how helping others through creating art can help the artist, how social media might have impacted some of these artists’ mental health if it existed during their lifetime, and the complicated nature of the art world/ business as it relates to an artist’s mental health.
The Cacao Muse did a Holiday Tour of Chocolate around Substack and paired Create Me Free with CocoTutti. I share my work, my favorite chocolate, and a fond memory.
DRESSEMBER INTERVIEWS
I participate in Dressember annually, interviewing other participants to amplify their voices as they raise awareness and funds to combat human trafficking. See all of those interviews here.
Guest Posts
I’m always open to sharing guest posts that are relevant to the topic of how mental health and are intersect.
When Dickens stepped in to keep me company: How reading literature gave me purpose during a time of grief. A Create Me Free guest post by Jeffrey Streeter
Happiness is yellow: why neurodivergence can drive creativity - Guest Post by Allegra Chapman. Creativity can be a powerful tool for neurodivergent individuals to navigate a world that often fails to recognize their diverse perspectives, providing a platform for authentic self-expression.
Facing Fears and Trying New Things: Guest Post and Excerpt by Maggie Maris + Crochet Exercise by Kathryn Vercillo. A stop on the virtual book tour for My Journal, a guided journal published by the founder of Maggie's Way
VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR INFO!!
Famous Artists and Mental Health
I do research into a variety of artists in different genres with an eye towards understanding how mental health and creativity intersected in their lives.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Art for Thought: Georgia O'Keeffe's 1918 Painting "The Flag". The Flag represented not just the usually apolitical artist's political beliefs, but her fear, anxiety, and depression, emotions which mirrored those of the country at large.
Two Ways of Beginning a Book Chapter About Georgia O'Keeffe's Art and Mental Health. The final draft that I submitted to the editor/ publisher and the final final draft that ended up as the published version.
The Role That Alfred Stieglitz Played in Georgia O'Keeffe's Creativity and Mental Health. O’Keeffe and Stieglitz had a complicated relationship with one another as she effectively replaced not only his wife Emmy. O’Keeffe is quoted as saying, “he photographed me until I was crazy.”
Georgia O'Keeffe's Flowers as a Breathing Meditation for Anxiety. Lake George, New Mexico, a new man, and the artist's last years ....
5 Things About Georgia O'Keeffe: a car accident, stretching her own canvases, other artists in her orbit ... Plus museums dedicated to women artists (there aren't many), her sister Ida's experience with Stieglitz, and a version of Starry Night
Diane Arbus
DIANE ARBUS: 5 article series. Complicated family dynamics, history of depression, multilayered sexuality, and other things that may have helped shape the direction of the photographer's creativity
Others
Leonora Carrington Art and Mental Health. The surrealist artist's psychotic breakdown, a closer look at a specific piece of her rat, and a few fun facts ...
Art and Mental Health History: Sonja Sekula. Open about being a lesbian, regularly hospitalized for mental health challenges, working on a small scale when other Abstract Expressionists worked large ... Sekula's differences limited her fame.
Isa Genzken: A Half Century of Prolific, Innovative Art and Openness on Bipolar Symptoms. “She has always courted danger, with predictable results—the life force and the death wish are at odds in her.” - Judith Thurman on Isa Genzken
Asylum Art: Artists Who Created While Living in Psychiatric Institutions (And Those Who Did Not). Aloise Corbaz, Barbara Suckfull, Bryan Charnley, Camille Claudel, Louis Wain, Martin Ramirez, Unica Zurn and more than a dozen other artists who did and didn't create while in inpatient care
Richard Dadd: Excerpt From The Artist’s Mind. After murdering his father during psychosis, Richard Dadd lived and created his art in a psychiatric prison.
Michelangelo: Art and Mental Health History. An unrevised, earlier version of a chapter from The Artist's Mind
Brazilian Artist Bispo. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and hospitalized, spending five decades in Rio de Janeiro asylums. Once institutionalized, Bispo became a prolific artist.
Kay Sage: Do the desolation, prison-like scaffolding, and muted colors of Sage's dreamscapes reflect a history of depression?
Mental Health Lessons From Famous Artists. There are two there and another seven here.
From The Books I'm Reading About Art and Mental Health
I read a lot of books related to art and mental health. This is where I share what I’m thinking about what I read in those pages.
Sylvia Plath
I’m having a romance with Sylvia Plath these days, so there are lots of things about her including thoughts on books she wrote, fiction books inspired by books she wrote, and books about her.
Depression and Writing in the Mind of Esther Greenwood. What The Bell Jar teaches us about the complex relationship between writing and major depression.
The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. Loved this book so much - it’s fiction based on The Bell Jar with another storyline added in.
Pain, Parties, Work … Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar Summer. Non-fiction on fashion and beauty, art and writing, depression and handwriting analysis in a key summer of the author's life.
Other Books
Lisa Carver's Heart-Wrenching Writing. On Yoko Ono, Dissociative Identity, Parenting a Special Needs Child and all of the ways art relates ...
Art+Mental Health in All My Puny Sorrows. A novel written by an author whose father and sister died by suicide, an experience woven subtly and not-so-subtly through this beautiful work
Thoughts from a book talk: Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa's Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco. On sex work as an art form, why I love San Francisco in spite of its many flaws, and how it all ties in to the complex relationship between art and mental health
If you re-read books do you also usually order the same thing off of a menu? This was from a conversation we had here on Substack that I found super interesting! I’m mostly not a re-reader myself and do order new things off menus.
My 2024 Substack Experience
A blunt look at what Create Me Free needed to shift since the financial realities didn’t start to match up with the creative dreams - specifically losing weekly digests, considering a milestone format. I then realized I needed to unsubscribe to 300+ substacks. Next I explored: Am I writing on Substack for income or for community and what changes if the answer changes? And then: Is Substack Really for Paid Newsletters or Is It A Writer's Social Media Site?
And More:
Dancing About Depression Videos depicting the experience of depression/ mental "illness" through dance performance art
Dancing About Bipolar: A Selection of Videos
Housekeeping
A few posts that are about me and my writing and things around here: