Sinking rapidly, falling deep into the darkness, lungs burning, desperate, fighting for a breath of air, slowly watching your life slip away as you let the tide pull you further down. The struggle to break free from depression is an immensely difficult task that many choose to battle in silence. The exhibition Drowning In Silence uses water as a theme to showcase the fight and submission one experiences with depression. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and creating these ten oil paintings gives people a chance to open that window, go through it, and experience the agony of depression.

This exhibition dives into the dark depths of depression using oil paintings to help visualize the different stages. Some people don't understand that the ability to recover from severe depression is extremely difficult. At that final stage of depression, one obsesses daily about ways of committing suicide. I get asked what it is like to live with it. I tell them it feels like you forgot what better was like. It's as if you forgot what happiness feels like, and everything you do to make yourself feel better only destroys you more. For years, I would suffer in silence. Family and friends would see me put on a fake smile. They knew by the look in my eyes that I wasn't ok, but since I didn't communicate, they never knew how severe my situation was at the time. Maybe if my family knew how severe my depression was, then maybe I wouldn't have put the belt around my neck. I decided to take my life because I wasn't worth living, and I wanted to let go. But the image of my three nieces flashed before my eyes, and I struggled to take the belt off my neck before falling to the ground.

I hope my artwork can provide a sense of understanding of the kind of pain one goes through. Provide a visual image of the suffering a person is struggling with on the inside. Living with severe depression for the better part of my life, the topic of mental health has always plagued me. After recovering from years of battling depression, it is now my responsibility to talk about it and help further bring awareness to this sensitive issue.