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I intended on representing mental health in my final project which I chose to personify as a wise person, or a wizard, walking a daily path. The path is a golden color because I wanted it to represent something valuable to walk on. I intentionally made a pattern in the path to have subtle crosses on it because I try to live as Christ would have me live.
The background is representative of a daily cycle, which I wanted to bring up to indicate a circadian rhythm. I have bipolar disorder and part of having that illness is the inability to naturally regulate my emotions and my circadian rhythm. I have learned over the years to routinize my life to maintain a stable state of mental health. The tree in the background is a representation of my routine, or things that I routinely do. I drink coffee in the morning, and the wise person is reaching for that first. The next symbol represents prayer, it is a pair of hands in the prayer form because I pray and practice Buddhist meditation each morning. The next symbol is a set of weights which represents my efforts to exercise daily. The next symbol is a banana which represents my efforts to eat well each day. Then I show a pill, which is a tool that I use to help regulate my emotions and my circadian rhythm and is something I take daily. Moving into nighttime I show a book, to represent that I write in my journal every night.
The wizard is wearing green graduation clothing. Green is the color that symbolizes mental health, and I would argue that college is a path to living a wiser life. The wizard is walking with the caduceus as his staff which represents health. His socks are rainbow colors to talk about how I grew up in a small town of a lot of hippies, and very free-spirited people, which is something I will always carry with me.