Merret Hennes: You Are Not Alone

 

    Throughout my life, I went through many tribulations and hardships, and one of the struggles I went through was my struggle with mental health. With the stigma surrounding mental health and the inaccessibility to professionals, I was not able to get the help I needed, or even knew I needed, till I was hospitalized and diagnosed. 

    The flag was hand-drawn and scanned to my computer and afterwards inverted to make the background black and the outline white. With the artwork on my flag above, you can see two people mirrored walking in the rain. Rain symbolizes our gloomy and off-days where we could be struggling the most. The faces of the two people are covered to hide their identity as to show that we truly don’t know who is struggling. The mirroring effect and the words “you are not alone” goes hand-in-hand to show that you are never alone, there will always be someone out there who may be going through the same thing, or similar to what you are going through. 

    Dahlia Elsayed has said before “the language becomes the artwork” and that inspired me to use this opportunity to promote the importance of mental health.