RESIDENCY ARTIST
MUD
Illustrator
Bio
Mud is an unconventional multidisciplinary artist with a focus on their experiences of mental health and recovery. Born in Okinawa, Japan - and now creating art in Kent, UK - Mud studied Illustration at Worcester University. They began creating artwork centred around mental ill-health in 2022 and have since put on a solo show in Gravesend titled, ‘The Artist is Insane - an exhibition of mental illness and creativity’ in February 2023.
Mud is also a Bethlem Gallery Artist for Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham. This involves creating work for the Museum’s collection, designing postcards for the Museum gift shop, and producing artwork to display and sell at the Bethlem Gallery Art Fair.
Statement about practice
Working primarily in acrylic paints on recycled and found materials, such as cardboard and parcel packaging, drawing inspiration from the outsider art movement, and seeking to explore the difficult, taboo, and challenging experiences of mental ill-health.
Facilitating tough discussions about mental health using the visual medium of acrylic painting, creating powerful, raw and vividly expressive artworks that explore madness and psychiatric survival. Recently, creating works that explore the experiences of mental health recovery.
If Only - Bright, swirling colours make up the imagery for ‘If Only’, it depicts an MRI Scan of a brain, with the right hand brain containing the words ‘Help me’. The accompanying text signifies the difficulty of experiencing mental ill health, and the struggle to receive help from mental health services.
Look Different - This piece features a side by side view of the experience of mental illness, and the experience of recovery, as seen through the lenses of glasses. The left hand piece is a collage of an older artwork titled ‘Burning’, created after experiencing intense emotional changes. The right hand piece expresses the experience of mental health recovery; as shown through the use of colour and mimicry of the pose featured in the older piece.
BPD Brain Scan - An artwork from the period initially after being diagnosed with mental illness in 2013. It depicts a brain scan face, with multiple notations pointing to various ‘blobs’ visible in the brain scan. It is a reflection of how the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder personally often feel as if your mind or brain is broken in some way.
