I took AP 2-D Art and Design in my senior year of high school (19-2020). I took on the class not knowing what I wanted to explore as my subject/investigation. I finally decided to focus my project on anxiety and how I see my own anxiety. This portfolio is something that I wanted to reach out to others with anxiety or maybe dealing with something else. It’s meant to connect with other people and show them that they’re not the only ones who feel like this. I also have a really hard time explaining how my anxiety feels, so I decided that I would go into the direction of explaining it through art.

The question that guided my investigation is, how does anxiety manifest physically in the body and mind? My anxiety helped my art making process evolve as it informed how my work developed over time. Drawing from my own anxiety was useful to help me show what anxiety looks like. I chose to use the mannequin to represent how anxiety can happen to anyone. Experimenting with photographing various positions of the mannequin helped me choose body postures that communicate anxiety. The figures are shown not interacting with their backgrounds due to being distracted by anxiety. Slides 1( Distortion), 2 (Caught up), 3 (Tied Up Inside) show examples of exploring ideas of how anxiety would physically look. 1 represents shaky, tingling, distorted feelings. 2 (Caught up) shows internal discomfort of the muscles. 3 (Tied Up Inside) displays feelings of suffocation in the chest and head. As my investigation progressed I exhibited objects representing personal coping mechanisms in pieces 4 (My Static) and 6 (Wash it Off). Water represents smothering and the relief of anxiety washing away in slides 5 (No Way Out) and 6 (Wash it Off) respectively. As my work progressed I thought about feelings of being trapped and hopeless which 5 (No Way Out) and 7 (Chains That Don’t Release) display. The water, fabric, and chains are a metaphor for feeling confined by anxiety.