Congratulations on coming 3rd in Zealous Amplify: Mental Health and Wellbeing! What is currently on your mind?
Absolutely buzzing and honoured, thank you Judges!!
Your winning entry, ‘The Black Experience’, is a collection of paintings is inspired by your experience as a black/ Zimbabwean, immigrant woman living in the UK. Experiences like this can be quite hard to articulate. How does it feel to express them through art?
Art is the best way I know how to communicate; I struggle with words and I always have. I feel seen in my paintings, I feel heard. The colours and imagery take up so much space in a way I’ve always been afraid to. It is freeing.
You are a self-taught artist, which is amazing to see! What inspired you to get into art?
I fell into it! I didn’t plan on becoming an artist or ever picking up a paint brush. After awkward year working in IT, I decided to retrain as an art psychotherapist and part of the course was to experiment and experience different art materials. I use to be a graphic designer so my natural instinct was to pick up a pen or a pencil, or any material that was easy to control. After weeks of doing the same that and sticking to what I knew, I decided to pick up a paint brush and try something new. I struggled to control the paint the I wanted it and that was super stressful for me. Its only when I decided to be okay with the chaos that I was truly creatively free. I didn’t feel confined by perfect lines and I enjoyed creating a mess. Here we are today.
I think the piece which speaks the most truth in this current climate is ‘CHIDO’. What Chido represents in the black experience collection is the strength it takes to survive as a black woman. She is often overlooked, picked last or silenced. She is often labelled as aggressive, argumentative and angry. No one takes the time to understand her, nurture her or asks her why she weeps. As black women are often underrepresented and overlooked when it comes to mental health, do you think there are any ways of breaking down these barriers?
I think one of the best ways to break these barriers is open dialog. Speaking up and sharing our experiences and having people actually listen. Not just listening to make it the black experience a marketing craze but actually listening and genuinely adjusting behaviours and thinking processes. We need to create safe spaces for black women so we feel less judged and less like we have to be “Strong and independent” all the time. We need to make spaces that actually allow black women to feel angry and not be stereotyped for it, anger can be healthy when it is not weaponised. We need to stop emotionally muting the black woman.
Do you think work like yours can help to challenge the perception of the black experience and mental health?
I hope so. I hope it helps people reflect, think and empathise more.
What does self-care look like to you?
In a hoody, watching reruns of Charmed on the sofa! Being on my own to recharge my social battery. Saying no to things I don’t want to do and that do not fuel me energetically. Meditating and most importantly, seeing my therapist.
You can find Charmaine on her website and Instagram.
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