Vancouver Island artist Philip Mix says that as a kid, all he wanted to do was drawn. Now 70 years old, Mix says at some point along the way, he figured it was more than likely a coping mechanism for him.
Mix is one of numerous artists who contributed work to Recognition and Recollection, an intersection of art and mental health. It’s an exhibit at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre, and is the byproduct of cooperation between 5 different local arts councils.
“This concept of recognition and recollection basically really fits into my own profile as an artist who suffer some mental types of struggles. Myself, I’ve been diagnosed as bipolar and I take medication for it,” said Mix.
“It’s funny, when you’re 70, you look back on your life and you go, ‘oh my gosh, I just thought I was being brilliant, and no, I wasn’t. I was just kind of falling off a wall. So now things are at a place where I am capable of expressing those things quite well with my own artwork.”
People First Radio spoke with Mix, and with Cowichan Valley Arts Council President Elizabeth Croft about Recognition and Recollection, and the link between art and mental health.
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