Dissociate - Original Mental Health Art About Derealisation and Trauma

Dissociate is an attempt to paint dissociation from the inside out: not what a dissociating person necessarily looks like to somebody else, but what they might look like if their outside reflected how the experience feels. Dissociation can create a sense of disconnection from yourself, your surroundings, your memories or reality itself. Depersonalisation can feel like observing yourself from a distance, while derealisation can make the world seem dreamlike, distant or unreal. For people living through trauma or with its aftermath, it can sometimes feel as though the brain has simply vacated the building. MEANING & SYMBOLISM The fragmented, unreal quality of the figure reflects that strange experience of being physically present while feeling somewhere else entirely: walking through a dream, watching yourself from outside, losing pieces of time, or knowing intellectually that the world is real while being unable to feel that it is. Dissociate forms part of a wider series exploring mental-health symptoms and experiences associated with mental-health medication. This piece focuses specifically on dissociation and trauma. AT A GLANCE Original, one-of-a-kind artwork 14.5 by 19.5 cm Watercolour and fineliner Cream-coloured watercolour paper Sold unframed COLOUR PALETTE Muted lilac skin tones and soft washes contrast with stark black fineliner details, creating a deliberately strange, disconnected atmosphere. FRAMING Sold unframed, ready for you to choose a frame that suits your space. CONDITION AND CARE The finished artwork will be protected with Dorland's Wax Medium before dispatch. The display suggestion in the final image is a digital mock-up for display and scale reference. Designed and painted by Ember Cant in Retford, Nottinghamshire, UK.