Volatile Chemicals

This is a crayon and ink drawing inspired by my own experience living with schizoaffective bipolar disorder. 

The light source is on the side of "Mania". The hair is made to resemble flames to symbolize the fiery temperament and hyper-creativity that quickly burns itself out. She grins because she sees or hears something beautiful, something off the edge of the page in a world outside our normal vision. 

The Depression side has harsh angles and sharp edges where the other side is playful and curved. The hair is meant to resemble something like lightening and broken glass. If you look close enough, you can see that the page there has been deliberately crumpled into a little ball, and smoothed out again so you almost can't tell the crayon wax has scars. There are cracks in the face are where depression is spreading, leaving weak fractures threatening to shatter the whole person.

The neutral identity in the middle is a mere sliver of the overall picture. The two inner eyes are also part of her face, and is being stretched and pulled between the two polar aspects. There is no defineable place where she ends and the others begin. She almost does not have her own face at all, doesn't know who would remain without the other two.

She is trying to remain hopeful and direct her gaze towards the light, even though Depression is always eroding away at the edges, those wild fluctuations mean there will be those ups again. This also is meant to represent the attraction to the euphoric creative state, although like fire, mania can be equally destructive. She seems so friendly, but remember that playing with fire is usually a really bad idea.