Hand Mosaic – Red, Blue and Mauve…

When I was attending START, the arts mental health project in Manchester, back in 2010, I was asked how I would describe my hand mosaic (shown on the photo below) if I had to sum up what it says and what its meaning is.

Hand Mosaic, START in Manchester, 2010

I said ‘I suppose there is a link to recovery because part of recovery, of my recovery, is finding joy again and finding enthusiasm again and things that were really dead when I was ill, so it is about a rediscovery of these things…

The colours that I’ve used for the hand mosaic- the Red, the Blue and the Mauve- in my mind,  are linked to joy, excitement and enthusiasm… and for me, it is about rediscovering these things and reclaiming them… because being severely depressed for two years, there was no joy or enthusiasm or excitement for anything whatsoever…

I think this is the link to recovery because it is part of getting well…it is about finding that hope about the possibility of change and the possibility of going to work again and having meaningful relationships again…whereas I had no contact with anybody for two years …so it is like reclaiming all these things that link to that hope…and that is what recovery means for me!’ (From my reflexive journal, 15 October 2010)