As a freelance artist, you can use your work to help others while also helping yourself. This is especially true of using art to explore topics such as mental health. As part of mental health month, The Freelance Jungle are holding a series of interviews with fascinating creatives and businesspeople.
One such person is freelance artist Amy L Clarke.
It is our absolute pleasure to investigate art and looking at mental health impacts on the creative process with Amy L Clarke. And how to embrace our creative projects and practice as a way of reducing stress and/or mental health impacts.
As part of this event, Amy will be sharing her story, a selection of her art and the story behind them. She’ll be discussing her own creative process as a stress relief mechanism. As well as why it’s important to Amy to share a positive message about mental health through creativity with the community. And how we can use a focus on self-care to help freelancers, friends, family – anyone really, be far more open about their mental health and stress related issues.
We talk to Amy about the following topic areas:
How did you get your start in art?
What made you change careers to make art your focus?
What’s the first bit of art you did as a freelancer? Can you share it with us and talk us through it?
How has changing careers worked for you?
What impact has the change had on your mental health?
Let’s get our art geek on for a moment- what materials do you like to use when creating your work?
Even learns from mistakes. What’s a mistake you made with your art freelancing practice and what did it teach you?
Let’s talk about your art and your mental health. How does your creativity help you?
Can you share a piece with us that explores your mental health and talk to us about it?
Even if we love what we do, we sometimes get stressed by the work we do for clients or for grants, deadlines, and competitions. How do you manage that stress when it comes?
Is there a separation between what you draw for yourself and say, what you put on social media?
Some people talk about the pressure social media places on artists to perform. Is that your experience, too? If so, how have you overcome it?
Why is it important for you to share a positive mental health message with your creative practice?
What’s your favourite piece talking about mental health in a positive way?
People have been super stressed lately under COVID-19. How has art helped you through this time?
Have you got a COVID specific favourite you’d like to share with us?
We often see you building challenges for yourself with art and illustration. How do the challenges help you with production?
If another artist is there looking at challenges as a way to inspire more creativity, what advice do you have for them?
If there is someone with us today who is considering using art or another form of creativity to help with stress reduction or mental health management, what 3 tips would you give them?
What would you say to anyone else out there who is looking at art or illustration as a career who is afraid to change?
Who is Amy L Clarke?
Amy L Clarke is an artist and illustrator with a focus on exploring the mind, mental health, and well-being. She uses creativity to inspire conversations on mental health – while helping to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
Her minimalist illustration style has also helped bring a range of client projects to life – including book illustrations, online content and colouring-in pages.
You can catch up with Amy via :
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amy.l.clarke/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amy.l.clarke/
Website https://www.alwclarke.com/