Creating a Library of Work About the Complex Relationship Between Art and Mental Health

What to expect in the new updates to Create Me Free as it relates to sharing "Art and Mental Health Link Love" ... and a behind the scenes glimpse into my research process

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Inspired by my internal reaction to some concerns here on Substack, I’ve made a few minor changes here to align all of the work that I’m doing with my true goals and values. It’s always good to check in with ourselves and ask, “am I doing all I can to be as authentic to my vision as possible?” and then to make shifts accordingly. While there aren’t any huge changes, you can read about what’s shifting a bit right here, where you’ll also learn more clearly what Create Me Free is all about.

Today’s post is a glimpse of what you can expect from my weekly “link love” roundup which will continue to go out on Fridays to all subscribers. I explain why I share this in the first place and then you’ll see what framework to expect for the new categories I’m using as I create these posts.

Why I Share Art and Mental Health Link Love

My niche is the relationship between art and mental health, with a focus on trying to understand how various mental health symptoms impact artistic process, productivity, medium, content, self-perception and reception by others. (And I believe that all of us are artists and all face mental health challenges to varying degrees.)

What I am doing here at Create Me Free is:

• Creating a library of work in this niche that can become a comprehensive resource

• While I care about art as therapy, I’m really interested in conversations around the shadow side of this relationship, something I don’t think we talk about enough. I am opening those deep conversations with the goal of providing information, inspiration, and empowerment to all artists with mental health challenges, creatives as a whole especially around issues of work-life balance and finances and holistic wellness, and therapists/teachers who work with artists.

• Working to create a community space for this conversation among people who are concerned about these issues

Purposes of Link Love Roundups

• Many amazing writers are writing about topics that are related to these concerns. I want to highlight, celebrate, and support their (your!!) work.

• I want to invite anyone interested in this topic into community. I want to make sure that you can all find each other in the big sea of Substack so that you can make connections and friendships and collaborations.

• I don’t just share links to things I liked. I draw parallels between common themes to get us all thinking more deeply about this topic.

• This all adds to the library of work that I’m creating here, an online library of exquisite writing about the complex relationship between art and mental health.

FRAMEWORK FOR CATEGORIZING ART AND MENTAL HEALTH LINKS

I recently did a poll to find out if you would prefer more categorization of the types of posts in these roundups. You said yes. This also aligns with the original and continuing goals of the Create Me Free mission. I have decided to organize Link Love in the exact same way that I organize my research behind the scenes.

In creating this body of work, for my books and my essays and my next thesis project and all of my writing and research, I keep a running document of ideas and notes that fall into specific categories. The first set is all about how mental health symptoms (term used broadly) may impact different aspects of art/creativity for various artists. The second set is more broadly about how art may heal and harm individuals and communities.

Ideas don’t always fit neatly into one category but for the purpose of organizing my research, I usually choose the closest one. There may be 0-3 posts in any of the following categories on any given week. Here are those categories:

Mental Health and Creative Process

The creative process is the series of steps and stages that individuals go through to generate, develop, and express their creative ideas and bring them to fruition. Everyone’s process is different but it includes things like preparation and inspiration, routines and rituals, the physicality of doing the work, and the ultimate review and sharing of the work.

So, in this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact the creative process with topics such as creative blocks, inconsistency in work, challenges with focus, etc. - anything that impacts the flow of the work in any way (we don’t use “positive” or “negative” around here - it’s all about just being with what is.)

Mental Health and Creative Content

In this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact creative content, meaning the themes explored in the work - this can include the way challenges alter the depth of the work, the symbolism used, and the narrative, as well as times when art its used as advocacy or activism in relation to mental health.

Mental Health and Creative Medium

In this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact the choice of a creative medium, often relating to adaptation to various health conditions. Sometimes during a mental health challenge, people turn to very familiar mediums for comfort and sometimes they instead try something new for distraction, as just one example. In some instances, issues of changing the scale of work show up in this section, although sometimes that’s also in creative process.

Mental Health and Creative Productivity

In this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact creative productivity which often comes up for people who find that depression/anxiety/burnout/etc can impact motivation/ability to work, the role of procrastination, perfectionism, etc.

Mental Health and Creative Identity/Self-Perception

In this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact an artist’s creative identity and self-perception including issues of self-doubt and self-esteem, fear of failure or success, what it means to identify as an artist/writer/creative, etc. How does creating your art and sharing it with the world impact how you see yourself?

Mental Health and Creative Business

In this section, I’ll share excerpts related to how mental health/wellness/challenges may impact creativity as a business and how money complicates things related to holistic wellness for artists. Issues of reception by others, work-life balance, self-promotion, charging for work, etc. How does the realistic need for money tie into the way work is created, how does that impact mental health and how do mental health symptoms impact that business process?

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How Art Heals

Naturally we often talk about how is therapeutic /cathartic. While this isn’t my emphasis (because there’s already so much written about this), sometimes there’s such great stuff to share in this area. It’s not to be overlooked.

How Art Harms

We often don’t like to talk about how art can harm/hinder us as individuals and in community, but it can for all types of reasons from the actual impact of the art making itself on our physical and mental wellness to the systemic challenges faced in the business of art. Talking about this helps us all figure out ways to mitigate the harm and celebrate the therapeutic power of art.

Art in Community

What is the role of art museums, galleries, schools, and public art spaces in terms of concern for the mental health of artists, visitors, and staff? What does it mean for artists to live in a capitalist society and how can community shift to support creative, holistic wellbeing?

The Power of Consuming Art

Mostly I share thoughts from people about making art as it relates to mental health but I have discovered over time that there’s a lot of power in consuming art (viewing, reading, etc.), so let’s talk about that too!

Short Shares

Naturally there are going to be things that people write that are just too good not to share and that touch on this topic but don’t fall into a specific category so I may continue to share a few additional short excerpts.

Sci-Friday

I have recently been participating in Sci-Friday. I am going to step back a small bit from this but whenever I see something on or off Substack that links science fiction to mental health issues, I’ll share that here.

Final Notes

As I share these links, I’ll share the thoughts I personally had related to my niche. Please note that this doesn’t ever mean that it’s what the original author intended … just that I was inspired by their writing, want to give you my own thoughts from my personal lens, and hope that you’ll enjoy checking out their original pieces as much as I do.

At the current time, posts are all free. That said, without meeting my financial goals, I can’t continue the work. I am being very transparent that I am here for paying subscribers. That can’t be everyone and I understand that. I’m making my first year of material free so you can see how the library unfolds and contribute in the way that is right for you. The sooner people pay to subscribe, the more likely it is that the work continues past that first year. If I ultimately switch to a paid-only model, I will review what the role of links would be at that time.

• I’ve created my Table of Contents where you can see all of my post types and the posts available in each one.

• I’ve made it so that you can opt out of the types of posts here that you don’t want email notifications for. Learn more here.

• On a really tight budget? Learn about my Pay What You Can option here.