Raven's Flag - 'Tending the Empath'

 

  For my flag, I wanted to symbolically represent the need for self-care and opportunity for growth. I’m an empath and it’s common for those who are empathetic in nature to put others before themselves, which often results in us feeling empty if we don’t take care of ourselves too.

  There’s the saying “You can’t pour from an empty cup” that was said aloud one day at my job and it stuck with me ever since. It’s important to be mentally in tune with yourself so you can be in tune with others. In recent years, this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned entering adulthood, and while being in quarantine for the past few months, I heavily reflected on it. I want to strongly encourage others to do the same, especially since I plan on having a career in the field of Psychology that primarily focuses on mental health and wellness. 

  In the flag design, I have two panels of a sunflower, I chose a sunflower to represent myself since it’s my favorite flower, and for its meanings. There are various meanings for sunflowers such as loyalty, unconditional love, joy, and vibrancy. I try to radiate those traits, especially towards my loved ones when they need it the most. In the left panel, I have a wilting sunflower to represent the withered state of when you’re not tending to yourself whilst being there for others. The transparent vase is empty to express the experience of emotional drought. The right side parallels with the left in being a healthier sunflower that’s freshly watered and cared for, this is to represent the aftermath of taking care of yourself. There's also a watering can that symbolizes what is needed for self-healing (i.e: self-awareness, love, time, exercises, etc). 

After observing Dahlia Elsayed's work, I was inspired by the scenery she'd purposely have in her pictures to provide symbolism. I chose not to include text because it wasn't necessary to emphasize the flag's overall meaning. A quote of Elsayed's that also inspired me was “For writers, and for artists in general, a lot of things start with the personal”, said Elsayed…”The question becomes, How do you take it out of the personal realm and turn it into something more universal?”. It inspired me to get personal with my flag and explore the trait of empathy using familair objects to symbolize a familiar feeling.

For this flag, the materials I used were mixed media paper and dual brush pen watercolor markers.