Twenty-nine young artists explored inner feelings of identity in an art exhibition organized in October by the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County. “How I See Myself” was made possible in part by a grant from The Sophie Fund, which is honored to share the exhibition here. Thanks and bravo to the artists.

Hannah A., age 16, Ithaca High School

Cálida

Oil Pastels

“My goal was to create a colorful expressive self-portrait. I enjoyed experimenting with bright loud colors using oil pastels.”

Sabena S., age 16, Ithaca High School

Untitled

Colored pencil on paper

Lyla C., age 10, Newfield Central School District

Blank Space

Colored pencil, Sharpie, graphite

“My art Blank Space is about me. When I was making this piece I didn’t really think I just drew it. My mom helped me out a little bit. While i was making this piece I felt happy so I drew my character smiling. My mom and brother cheered me on. That made me feel proud.”

Aaliyah M., age 16, Ithaca High School

Thoughts

Pencil, Blue colored pencil, Sharpie

“In this I drew a girl hiding around the corner from her own thoughts. I tried to draw a reality of hiding/distracting yourself from negative thoughts.”

Laura W., age 15, Ithaca High School

What If

Pencil

“As a queer artist, I have faced a lot of discrimination. All throughout elementary school and middle school, I was bullied for being “over weight” or “weird” or in middle school, “not normal” or just overall homophobia, or even critiques of my singing and acting. Being bullied really effected my body image, my perception of myself, and my mental well-being. In 8th grade my mental health started to decline, hearing many of the sayings incorporated into my art. My question is, what if I listened to them, what if I continued to believe it, what would’ve happened to me. My concept with my art is to hopefully have somebody see it, to know that they aren’t alone, and that there are people there for them and other options for them.”

Jennifer C., age 15, Ithaca High School

Past Paranoid

Colored pencils, pen

“I created this art for when I experienced getting bullied for three years in Enfield Elementary. My feelings about my art piece are happy since I am finally able to draw what I dealt with in my past. I was trying to express the post-affects of after someone is bullied in the past, since it inspired me to draw for the anti-bullying theme.”

Chloe V., age 15, Ithaca High School

Lost in the Line

Colored pencil and graphite

“I made the red spiral stand out to represent displacement/ detachment from everyone else or oneself. The spiral wasn’t originally going to be red, but I felt like it needed that pop to make the drawing feel complete.”

Charlotte T., age 15, Ithaca High School

The Side You Never See

Acrylic Paint, Marker

“This piece reflects all the emotions, ideas, thoughts, and feelings that go in within a person that are sometimes kept inside and never expressed. I really liked making this piece because I was trying out a new style and I love making portraits overall. I also enjoy the freedom of being able to express a thought in a way other than speaking or writing. I think this piece can show a series of many issues not only those related to emotions or mental health and can be interpreted in more ways than one.”

Julia S., age 10, Newfield Elementary

Sunny Day

Colored pencil, sharpie, highlighter

“It’s about me, and a happy me. It’s happy and positive with a smiley-face sun. It’s about me because it shows me having a happy look. It’s important to be happy and have other emotions too. They are difficult but this is happy.”

Kevin D., age 15, Ithaca High School

About Me Poem

Marker and acrylic

“I believe my art piece represents a new day. A new mentality that helped me get through my struggles with mental health. I hope this piece inspires people and gives a new light about mentality and attitude going into life.”

Twenty-nine young artists explored inner feelings of identity in an art exhibition organized in October by the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County. “How I See Myself” was made possible in part by a grant from The Sophie Fund, which is honored to share the exhibition here. Thanks and bravo to the artists.

Skylar W., age 10, Dryden Elementary

Zoning Out

Pencil on paper

“Sometimes when I get angry or sad I like to listen to music and draw. I zone out a lot and I wanted to picture myself zoning out in space. Usually people tell me to straighten my hair, die it blonde or get rid of my freckles. This picture with my natural hair is an encouragement for kids who look like me or even if you don’t. I like the motto, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ You can be it.”

Zairan C., age 16, Ithaca High School

Untitled

Charcoal

“I chose to work with charcoal because of how it falls apart as you use it. When you’re done with it, there’s only dust left. Something must be destroyed in order for another to be created. The feeling of destruction transfers over to my work with the use of strong, bold, and crazy lines. I hope this reflects the damage of bullying and how it takes away or molds part of yourself. This particular portrayal of myself is inspired by German expressionistic art.”

Dakota W., age 16, Ithaca High School

Family Portrait

Colored pencils, paper

“The artwork is about how people in an abusive household can look perfectly fine on the outside. The artwork is also about people with mental health issues that can be raised in an abused household, generational trauma, miscarriage, and depression.”

Louisa H., age 11, Dewitt Middle School

Pink Lion

Water colors and pencil

“The pink lion that I made in art class with water colors was done a year ago. I started the pink lion, then I put it down, and then started working on it again. Now I am very happy with how it turned out.”

Zoe K., age 13, DeWitt Middle School

Spaced Out

Newspaper, glue, paper, pencil , colored pencils, markers

“This piece shows the artist and the four key things that contribute to their mental health: anxiety, depression, bullying, and school. With clips of newspaper because a lot of anxiety and depression comes from things we can’t control and it’s in space because a lot of the time we space out and that is when we stress.”

Sky F., age 15, Ithaca High School

Mask

Digital Print

“This piece is meant to show the feeling of needing to appear calm and happy while feeling the opposite. On one side, the face is serene and smiling, with soft light coming from above, and on the other side she is screaming and lit from below. This shows how the way we feel and the way we appear are often very different.”

Ella H., age 16, Ithaca Senior High School

Mirror of Insecurities

Watercolor, pencils, and markers

“My portrait is a depiction of how a person might see themselves. On the right side, I used colored pencils to depict how I look in real life. On the left side, I used markers to depict my insecurities and how I think other people might perceive me. This portrait shows how you can never really know how someone feels about themselves on the outside, and that we should all be kind and understanding to each other.”

Luke S., age 15, Ithaca High School

Half the Story

Digital Print

“It’s only half the story. They don’t see everything, they don’t understand, they are blind to your strengths. They see only what they want to.”

Freyja, age 14, Ithaca High School

The Color Within

Colored pencil, watercolor, pen

“Part of my process for making this piece was drawing a current self-portrait (One of a photo I just took of myself) and then ripping it in half. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go after that, but I knew that I wanted to make something interesting with color. So with color creeping out of the second portrait in the middle I thought that it fit the theme perfectly. The colored portrait on the inside representing how bullying or mental health can cause your true self to hibernate or retract back into and not truly shine.”

Finn K., age 15, Ithaca High School

Small

Charcoal

“It’s a small portrait created with charcoal. I thought smudged charcoal would be a cool effect to show the facial expression.”

NEXT: Self Portraits of Youth (Part 3)

Twenty-nine young artists explored inner feelings of identity in an art exhibition organized in October by the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County.

“How I See Myself: Self-Portraits of Youth and Young Adults” featured invited art works by youth aged 10-17, who were celebrated at a First Friday Gallery Night Ithaca reception on November 3. The exhibition formed part of “United in Kindness,” a series of events coordinated by the Tompkins County Bullying Prevention Task Force.

“Some pieces expressed the difficult feelings that can result from bullying, others shared messages of hope and recognition that we are more than how other people see us,” said Melanie Little, director of Peer Programming at the Mental Health Association. She added that many of the 90 guests who attended the reception “remarked on the talent, depth and vulnerability demonstrated in the powerful works of these local young artists.”

The exhibition was curated by Ithaca artist Michael Sampson, a member of the Artist Alley studios and curator at The Gallery at South Hill.

“I see with the artists self-portraits an extremely individual body of work in the show,” Sampson said. “That individuality empowers the artists to continue with their artwork and use it as a tool to combat any struggles.”

“The theme gave the artists almost an assignment to face difficult things by using visual language to express what would otherwise be kept inside. Some artists in their statements gave advice, which was sweet and showed their compassion for others.”

“How I See Myself” was made possible in part by a grant from The Sophie Fund, which is honored to share the exhibition here. Thanks and bravo to the artists.

Autumn S., age 12

Through My Looking Glass

Digital print

“When I received the opportunity to make a self-portrait for this show, I leapt at the chance to participate because I enjoy sharing my work with others. While drawing I used a mirror and started wondering, ‘How can I make this more 3D?’ After working with the piece a few times and fiddling with the color scheme, shading, and background, I found a combination I was happy with. I feel that the final piece represents my artistic self well.”

Elise S., age 16, Ithaca High School

Internal Conflicts

Charcoal, pencil, collage materials

“This project is still a working process. I’m planning to cut out the figures and create a collage with it. I want to represent the two different sides of grief. Obviously you will have some sadness in your anger and some anger in your sadness. For the collage I want mostly pictures that either remind me of my father or pictures that remind me of his presence.”

Vivian B., age 15, Ithaca High School

The Fire Inside

Procreate

“The artwork is about the light and fire that each person has within themselves, and no matter what happens their light will still be burning.”

Juliet C., age 17, Ithaca High School

Juju

Watercolor

“This piece is a watercolor self-portrait that captures the mix of emotions that happen when being caught in a moment of excitement.”

Katie H., age 16, and Hannah A., age 16, Ithaca High School

Aramilla

Oil pastel on paper

“We wanted to create a portrait of an abstract person who symbolizes our inner thoughts and feelings. We wanted to show, in the most colorful and creative way, our biggest insecurity.”

Amelia D., age 13, DeWitt Middle School

The Mask

Paper and pencil

“Throughout the day her face is cracking because of all the rude comments but she wears a mask and puts it on every day and soon she´ll fully break under all the pressure.”

Sadie V., age 15, Ithaca High School

Modicum of True Self

Oil pastels

“When people are mistreated it’s often because only a small portion of their true selves is understood. If we give others a chance a whole world will open and we will be able to see the beauty in everyone.”

Violet W., age 10, Dryden Elementary

Meant To Be

Colored pencil on paper

“This piece of art is very valuable to people who are getting bullied or people who are being a bully. I made this because I wanted to help make people know that they belong and let them know that they matter.”

Katie H., age 16, Ithaca High School

Fingers in the Face

Mixed media

“This painting shows how the way we perceive ourselves is a lot worse than the way others perceive us. Sometimes we are the biggest bully to ourselves. For me, I always think one of my eyes is bigger than the other.”

Anisa P., age 11, DeWitt Middle School

Still Standing

Paint on canvas

“This is a piece about the effects of bullying and how they can get to people. But in this painting it was about how you can’t let what they say get to you.”

NEXT: Self Portraits of Youth (Part 2)