Beka Haigh

1. Pandora’s Box
Having inner demons (and I think us human beings all have them), especially when you have ongoing mental health issues (and you're trying to fend off your demons in hopefully healthy ways), can feel very much like opening Pandora's Box at times. My demons come in all shapes and sizes and manifest in numerous ways. I drew this particular set of escaping demons at a time when facing a lot of them at once and finding it as overwhelming as Pandora must have on the legendary tale. Attempting to draw them has helped me to face them.

2. Scream
Sometimes life can be a bit much for one person and when that kind of feeling occurs, it seems to me like a lot of dark, restless energy is collecting and expanding inside my body, rippling and sparking and threatening to explode. Because I have (of course) been taught to be polite and respectful, it can be very difficult to find an appropriate time, location and situation to release the vast amount of intensity that has built up inside me. Because I couldn't get outside for whatever reason, this drawing represents the equivalent of screaming into the wind at a cliff top or digging a hole in the forest and wailing into the dark soil. Sometimes you just have to let the monster out.

3. Overtaken
I have suffered with mental health issues for most of my life. One way to work through the difficult periods is support from professional therapists, which I have benefitted from over the years. Another way (introduced to me by one of these brilliant and supportive therapists) is to draw how you feel, particularly when you're right in the thick of the darker moments. Sometimes, for me, these drawings were a way to extract the pain and suffering I felt at the time from my head and put it somewhere else, allowing me to create space to feel and think more positively. This drawing was done in one of those moments, where I felt like the 'darkness' was starting to consume me. Thankfully, it hasn't yet.