Page 42 - ABILITY Magazine -Cedric Yarbrough Issue

Tyrimos: Mental illness is the last taboo, and a lot of work still needs to be done. There are a lot of fantastic campaigns and blogs and documentaries, but with this project I thought about how I can use what I’m already doing with my art. The art was a vehicle of expression, a different way of tackling the issue. A lot of them said that to come to a gallery and see a huge 50 x 50-inch painting of themselves and hear them- selves speak was a cathartic experience, and it was one step further to them accepting themselves. I think the more we talk about these subjects, the less of a taboo they’ll be.
Martirosyan: Is there an actual ‘Bipolar Picasso’ painting?
Tyrimos: No, Bipolar Picasso is just the title of the show. The title was my way of combining mental illness and art. But it’s not just bipolar disorder that I’m explor- ing. The illnesses range from anxiety to depression, to bipolar, to schizophrenia.
Martirosyan: When you do one of these larger pieces we’re looking at here, how long does it take?
Tyrimos: A painting can take me easily a month of working full time. But because I wanted the show to coincide with World Mental Health Awareness Day (October 10), I ended up doing the whole lot in four or five months.
“My heart beating” - Puneeta Sharma
Martirosyan: How many pieces?
Tyrimos: Ten. And that’s in addition to me meeting with the sitters, doing the audio, getting the inter- views, sorting all of that out. It was a lot to take on. And now I want to take it further, perhaps tour it to different cities, different countries, because the response to the show was that it needs to be seen by more people. So I’m looking into it. And it’s some- thing I feel passionate about. I don’t know if I believe the statistic that one in four of us will suffer a mental illness in our lifetimes; I personally think that even more of us, at some point in our lives, will struggle with our mental health.
Martirosyan: Or it could be temporary mental illness.
Tyrimos: Perhaps.
Martirosyan: Like clinical depression.
Tyrimos: Yes, at some point in your life. A lot of peo- ple may go undiagnosed and untreated. If we can talk about it before it gets to the stage where somebody has to go to hospital, if we can pick up on the signs early, whether it’s through lifestyle changes, meditation, therapy, or even medication. Because mental illness, as with physical illness, doesn’t discriminate, but the sys- tem can. If you aren’t lucky enough to have as much money as somebody else, that can hurt your chances at recovery.
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