picks me up, puts me down (anxiety drawings)
Graphite on 200gsm paper
29.7 x 42 cm
2023

This series of graphite drawings was created during panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden, severe episodes of intense fear and anxiety that trigger extreme physical reactions. The drawings were an attempted exercise to ease the symptoms experienced, as well as an artistic method to document each episode’s physical process.

The title for this work comes from ‘Free’ by Florence + the Machine, a song about anxiety which reflected the physical push and pull experienced and transcribed during each episode: ‘I’m on fire but I’m trying not to show it/ As it picks me up, puts me down/ It picks me up, puts me down/ A hundred times a day/ It picks me up, puts me down/ It chews me up, spits me out/ picks me up, puts me down’.