Mental Health Foundation Australia – Consumer Art Prize

Ruby Has Entered the 2018 Mental Health Foundation of Australia Consumer Art Competition. The exhibition will run during mental health month, 7th October – 6th November. The painting was created whilst Ruby was in May at the PARC (prevention and recovery care) Broadmeadows, Australia, a facility that assists people with sub-acute mental illness’ a place to recover and transition back to everyday life.

Emma “Ruby” Armstrong-Porter
“Love, Hope and Growth at Jewell House”, 2018
Water based enamel on board.
29cm x 21cm

ARTIST STATEMENT:
As a printmaker I use sharp tools to create my art. Sharp things are not allowed in
hospital. After 3 weeks in Broadmeadows Inpatient Unit, drawing on scraps of paper bin bags with some paint pens my partner bought me, arriving at broadmeadows PARC allowed me to be more free in the way I artistically express myself and the materials I could use.

I’ve made this painting during my stay, showing the hope and positivity I’ve found at PARC. The lines are are a little shaky, but so are my hands due to decreasing my medications.

The yellow map behind the hand is an interpretation of the floor plan of Jewell House. The hand itself shows my journey using tattoo motifs; the pain, the institutionalisation, but most importantly the lotus flower, representing growth and recovery in my life journey.