MENTAL HEALTH CONSUMERS EXHIBIT AN IMPRESSIVE ART SHOW

HONOLULU - National and Hawai`i artists will exhibit their work at the second annual “Abilities Art Show,” an event featuring the work of outstanding artists [touched by] mental illness. The show will open Friday, May 7, 6 p.m. at Studio1 Visual and Performing Arts Gallery, 1 N. King St. (corner of King and Nu‘uanu Street). The gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday, Noon - 5 pm, and [the show] will run until May 28, 2004.

During the month of May, the Department of Health (DOH) recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month. This year, the DOH Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD) and Vision, Strength & Artistic Expression (VSA arts) Hawaii-Pacific are sponsoring a juried exhibit for artists whose lives have been affected by mental illness. The goal of the exhibit is to help reduce negative stigma toward mental illness and to emphasize the human dimension, which is often best expressed through creativity and the arts. The event will feature all visual art forms including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. Each piece has an artist’s statement that shares with the public the artist’s feeling about their work and how the stigma of mental illness has affected them. Show curator, Philippe Gross, award winning photographer and author of The Tao of Photography, commented, “the quality of the work submitted was impressive.”

National artist and consumer of mental health services, Kristy Worthen, will be exhibiting two of her pieces in the Abilities 2004 show. Her work has been exhibited at the United Nations and is in the collections of several large corporations. Kristy is traveling the nation with the flag she designed and hand-painted to raise awareness about persons with mental illness and the issues they face. So far, Worthen has had the flag flown over 20 state capitols and the Old District Office in Washington, D.C. Kristy Worthen designed the flag and created the “Mental Health Flag Day.” Lt. Governor Duke Aiona will raise Ms. Worthen’s flag at the State Capitol where the flag continues to foster hope and awareness of mental health issues.

“I created my flag as a symbol of hope for all people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness,” Worthen said. “It is my desire for the flag to focus attention on each state’s mental health needs. I want to let others know there is hope, and there is help for people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness.” Worthen said she is happy and that with treatment she has been able to pursue the work she loves.

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Darcie Yukimura
Communications Office
Department of Health
Phone: (808) 586-4402
Email: dayukimura@mail.health.state.hi.us