Art as Therapy

EMMANUEL LOPEZ
aka MOTIVATORMAN
Award-winning Illustrator, Speaker, Author, Self-Care Influencer, Movie Lover & Foodie!

ART AS THERAPY

After I was diagnosed with clinical depression and seasonal affective disorder in 2015 I began a multitude of therapies. This helped me discover I was actually using art as therapy all my life. While attending the Ontario College of Art (now OCADU) in the mid 80's I was drawing self-portraits that clearly showed hidden mental health issues. My face was expressing a warped sense of reality and pain.

Later as a professional illustrator my commissioned works featured a reoccurring theme around the mouth. The mouths I drew were huge, in pain or even missing. My group therapy programs helped me identity childhood traumas related to my mouth and voice being stifled and even bound up.

I continue to heal my mental health challenges and am grateful that I had the inner strength, drive and intuition to use art as therapy to cope with forgotten pain I didn't even realize was stuck inside me. The beauty of my journey is I am able to transform hidden pain into artworks that others can truly enjoy and benefit from.