The heART Gallery [Complete✔]

Saving Her

Realizing when they waltz into the viewing gallery that it is in fact Amelia's turn, Isla is excited and relieved. That she still has some time to get her nerves under control.

"We have come to, I can say it, one of my favorite pieces. It's beautiful and heartfelt and deliberate and socially conscious as well as environmentally conscious. It is near and dear to my heart, especially growing up and learning to navigate life with a single mother that suffered with manic depressive disorder. So I am truly honored to introduce the creator of this magnificent piece, who is obviously just as beautiful inside as she is caring and gorgeous outside, 20 year old Ms.Amelia Uche!"

After Valentina introduces Amelia, Amelia dedicates her creation to a population that holds a dear place in her heart.

"Good evening everyone! I'm Amelia Uche. And I think of the Earth like a mind. It needs constant love, attention, nutrition, nurturing, and work. Too often mental health is seen as taboo or a disgrace to societal norms. But it's not, it's a part of our world just like pollution. It's here to stay, but it's our job to clean up that messy perception because mental health is a beautiful thing. And like a community garden it is all of our responsibility to keep it flourishing and operating at its optimum best. And in order to ensure a brighter future for those struggling with mental illness it is our responsibility to maintain the good parts, learn the changing parts, and find magic in the memories of the lost parts. Just like we do with our Earthly resources and evolved habitat. So I give to you my piece, 'Flourishing environMENTALLY'!"

As they witness the black curtains drop, Isla is floored. Amelia's creation is gorgeous.

She fused environmentally conscious art with mental health awareness, being that she is going onto be a psychiatrist that specializes in art therapy. She sculpted a human head out of recycled scrap metal and used tires to represent the folds of the brain.

In each cortex she created miniature gardens. For normally functioning cortexes she planted thriving, strikingly beautiful fragrant flowers. Like hydrangeas, roses, orchids, daisies, tulips, lilies, floxxes, and all types of plants bursting with vivaciousness.

The cortexes that represent where the personality dysfunctions are just beginning to take a foothold she mixed the beautiful flowering plants with an assortment of succulents and cacti. To signify that all though the person is experiencing some form of change to the more abrasive or hard to handle side, there are still pieces of their original personality blossoming.

The last few cortexes where the disorder has overtaken the once flamboyant personality are drowned in weeds. A plethora of crab grasses, and dandelions at differing states. Some the closed pod, others blossomed, and some the wispy white fluff. Some fluffs are full and whimsical, others half blown, and the rest fully gone. To show just how deteriorating mental illness can be.

But surrounding the gorgeous multifaceted, interactive, educational garden, she placed a link of watering cans with linked hands of varying skin complexions. As a metaphor that no matter the stages of mental deterioration it is all of our jobs to foster, nurture, and grow the mind of those suffering; just like maintaining and nurturing a community garden.