Caging Anxiety

I. Concept/Objective
Our art project “Caging Anxiety” is a way for people to share and face their own
anxieties. Its primary goal is to let the participants find a way to try to cope with their
fear, and give them a means to express their anxiety through art. The artist/participant
should first think about what triggers their anxiety whether it would be an object, an
experience, or a word, then think of an image that would best describe these thoughts.
After thinking about it, put the image at the middle and write a short description or
explanation around the image of what makes the participant anxious or why the image
triggers their anxiety. Then they must draw a line that would surround their anxiety and
the short message. After drawing the line, the participant must answer the following
questions: what do you want to do about your anxiety or what do you wish your anxiety
would look like to make you not anxious about it, who are the people that could support
you or love you, what hobbies, interests or actions help you forget your anxiety. Once the
participant reaches an answer to the questions, they must draw three lines separately to
have enough space because in each three separate spaces you would write your answers
then color the background of any color except for white and the text must be the color
white. This art proposal intends to bring the artist or participant awareness that despite
the struggles they have, it shows them that there is still something or someone that they
could hold onto to face their struggles. It also shows and makes them remember that they
still have activities that would help them cope. Mental health is a pressing issue for many
because we are all vulnerable to it. Regardless of the strength we and other people
perceive us to have, we are human nonetheless and especially at a time such as the
COVID-19 pandemic we must take care of our mental health as well. Thus, “Caging
Anxiety” is a reminder that though we have anxieties, we also have interests,
someone/something to support us even during our lows, what do we want to do about it,
and what do we wish to reshape our anxieties to free ourselves from it and move forward.

II. Materials and Procedures

1. Instagram Account - https://www.instagram.com/caginganxiety121/
2. Editing/drawing software
3. Devices to use for editing/drawing
4. Internet
Step by Step Procedure:
1. The artist/participant will first identify his/her object,situation, or anything that makes
them anxious.
2. The artist/participant will then think of an image that would best describe their anxiety
about from the internet to edit it within their software.
 3. The artist/participant will be placing the image as the center of attention within the frame
4. The artist/participant should put a short description of what makes them anxious about the
image or what they hate about it.
5. Draw a line surrounding the image of your anxiety to cage it.
6. The artist/participant would ask themselves of what are the answers to these questions:
what do you want to do about your anxiety/what do you wish your anxiety would look like
to make you not anxious about it, who are the people that could support you or love you,
what hobbies or interests that you would do just to forget your anxiety. 7. Draw three
separated lines around the line that cages the anxiety
8. In each space created from the three separated lines, put the short answer to the three
questions and color the background of any color except white because the text or
description is of color white.
9. Then put at the description section of the post what is the answer for each question.
Below is an example of the “Caging Anxieties”

III. Review of Related Literature

“Caging Anxiety” is primarily inspired by the surge of Instagram artworks focusing on the
message of mental health.
I. healwitharttt (Tanya Mahajan)
healwitharttt is an Instagram
account created and run by Tanya
Mahajan that focuses on using art
 as a form of therapy. It provides
exercises, affirmations, and love
through the use of soft colors,
imagery and kind words. In
addition it speaks for ongoing
injustices and discrimination as
well as promote for self love.

II. ur.fav.trash (Ashley Showalter)

ur.fav.trash is an Instagram account run by
abstract artist Ashley Showalter who often tries
to incorporate mental health issues within her
illustrations. We particularly took inspiration
from the aesthetic of this piece depicting a head
filled with negative thoughts being reminded
“Don’t Believe Everything You Think.” The
vibrant colors contrasted by the dark bold letters
with the white background holding the honest
truth.
III. Oliver Munday
Oliver Munday is a professional
illustrator who
has created an assortment of
illustrations,
posters. Caged Anxiety’s concept
was created
based on the illustrations Oliver
Munday had
created for the online article
“What Happened
To American Childhood?” by
Kate Julian. The
article discusses mental health issues
experienced by children. Oliver Munday’s
depiction of sad and frustrated children boxed
in misshapen boxes with their own sad
expressions sparked the idea for us to attempt
to box away the anxiety that would leave our head in such a disarray.

IV. Bibliography
healwitharttt. (2020, March 24). HEAL WITH ART (@healwitharttt).
https://www.instagram.com/healwitharttt/

ur.fav.trash. (2019, April 29). ASHLEY SHOWALTER | artist ��

(@ur.fav.trash). https://www.instagram.com/ur.fav.trash/

Julian, K. (2020, May). Parenting Kids With Anxiety. The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/childhood-in-an-anxious
age/609079/