It’s All in Your Head
- Watercolor and silver leaf on hot press watercolor board
- 121.75 x 12.75 in
- $500
- Diane Knauff
The painting, It’s All in Your Head, was conceived as an idea for a surrealism art show. During this time I was grieving the loss of my father, who died in June 2022, and the loss of my mother as I knew her, who’s dementia manifested itself into anger, paranoia and conspiracy related to my father’s brief illness and death. It seemed to be a perfect storm of rapid decision-making while trying to keep everyone informed. Later, my mother’s short-term memory issues made me have a constant feeling of being gaslit as she insisted she was never told things. I have struggled with depression most of my life and I began to feel as though I was sinking as I tried to deal with both my physical and mental health. For me, creativity has been as important to managing my mental health as my medication. While I was trying to come up with an idea for a surreal image, all I could think of was the physical problems I was experiencing: migraines, tinnitus, and a stabbing pain in my hand. I kept coming back to the concept of dichotomy. I wanted desperately to find a sense of peace but was caught in the cycle of physical and mental pain. This painting is a manifestation of that time in image form. The main image in the painting is placed in the middle of a pattern that represents the vortex I felt I was struggling against. The central figure is a merging of three images of me as I tried pressure to relieve the pain of my physical symptoms. So often during this time I found myself thinking “it’s all in your head” as I continued through my daily routines. If only one could see what is in one’s head. Through all of this I coveted the sense of peace. It was this struggle for peace that is represented by the six-armed figure, reminiscent of images of Hindu gods and goddesses. Although I was feeling stuck or locked in place (signified by the locks and tumbler lock dial), I chose to incorporate the lock images into a design that represented a lotus flower, which symbolizes overcoming adversity. The resulting image is not my typical realistic image but is created in that style. Creating the painting helped me process life’s traumas in a way that healed and beautified my life.
Bio:
I am a self-taught multi-media artist from Madison, Wisconsin. Over the years I have tried many creative outlets and mediums but find what excites me most, that thing that makes me lose myself in my work, is to discover what is possible. Color, texture, images, text and symbols are included in my work by themselves or together. Bringing these things together in my work is my way of replicating the complex layers of the world around me. At its core, my work is an evolving exploration of art materials with which I interpret my thoughts and beliefs. In recent years I have been focusing my work in exploring two painting mediums: watercolor and oil paint mixed with cold wax. My realistic watercolors include a wide range of subjects from landscapes to still life to portraiture. My oil and cold wax paintings are abstracts which incorporate revealing earlier layers to meld the past and present into works that are expressions of color, texture and mark-making.
- Framed: 20 x 20 in
- Collections: Fragility and Fortitude