The Depths of Dispair

This is an illustration I did when I was going to art school and was going through one of the most difficult times of depression I've ever gone through in my life. Every aspect of the picture, virtually all the details have a symbolic meaning of some kind. And yet as dire as depression can get there's always the fight to climb the steep stairway toward the light.

There's sometimes a dark side to our minds, and a torment, when our brain malfunctions and tries to destroy ourselves, or at least my bipolar brain - you may be telling me 'speak for yourself' haha. Ok, so MY brain goes into despair at times and torments me in the black darkness of the dungeons of my inner soul. Yet deep down, somewhere in my heart, a hero, a part of my creative self, fights a battle toward the light.

I could go on about the goblins in my mind, brought on by the misfiring sysnapses and a strange brew of messed up chemicals the bipolar causes in the head. Or maybe they're cyber lemmings eating away at the brain cells then leaping out my ears to their death. Whatever. I know it's something like that. And before you say it, no I am not on drugs, except by doctor's prescription. Finding the right doctors is hard though. Actually I'm just naturally weird and have an even weirder sense of humor. Still this is one of the few art pieces I've done that represents my inner struggle with depression. And I fairly decent self-portrait too.