A STUDENT has celebrated her mental health recovery through art.
Amber, who studies Art and Design Level 2 Diploma at Bracknell and Wokingham College created a 3D word for a recent project.
“I did the word free because, while I was doing the project, I was a patient in a mental health unit of a hospital,” she says.
“I was coming into college as a step into the community and when I finished the project, I got discharged so I chose to give my project a hospital theme and made it as a recovery piece.
“I added things like medicine bottles, sheets to look like hospital sheets, I used tic-tacs to look like pills and butterflies, because butterflies were something that I related to while I was recovering.
“It was a chance for me to express what I was thinking about without having to talk about it.”
Amber says the project helped her open up about her experience.
“Since then, a lot more of my art has been more reflective,” she says.
Jan Allen, visual arts and design lecturer at Activate Learning says the project has allowed students to explore their own creativity.
“They had lots of fun with it and used lots of different methods and techniques to create their models,” she says.
“They also used elements of English as they learnt about meanings and interpretations of different words, and also maths, as they scaled up their maquettes to different sizes.”
This is the first time students from the Church Road campus have completed the project, as part of creative pathways awarded by University of Arts London.
Other students drew on nature, real-life situations, personal interests, literature and popular culture as inspiration for their chosen word.
The finished pieces of art are currently on display in the college’s refectory.
