My submission to the gallery.

 Postpartum's Special Effects

it's most definitely not in the most prominent place in the gallery.  Actually, it's on the back wall near the bottom.  But it is a huge step for me, huge, to share something so personal and traumatizing.  A counselor I went to see a few months ago labeled my postpartum experience as "trauma".  I'd never thought of it that way.  I mean, there was no car accident or loss of another human being, so, how is it titled "trauma"?  Thinking back though, it becomes clear to me that it was indeed trauma and it lasted a very long time. 

I didn't officially recover from postpartum depression until Austin was 11 months old.  11 months of not knowing what it was like to be myself, 11 months of no sleep and very little eating, 11 months of on and off crying jags, 11 months of worrying that I wasn't properly raising Austin and him not being "attached" to me. 

I feel so much better nowadays.  Even now as I'm typing this, a huge sigh escaped me. 

The "mixed media" piece above - I used the following:

Acrylic paint

Regular Gel (Gloss)
Sharpie marker

labels from each prescription that my psychiatrist had me try to see what would help

pencil

the stem of the flower says "if the unexpected happens"

the leaves of the tree are punched out from the warning labels of each of the prescriptions and also images from various papers.

(oh and that's Austin up in the tree swaddled in his orange blanket).

The artwork is on display until October 31st at Parklane Gallery in Kirkland.