Art and Eating Disorders: Building Community Awareness 2013

The Emily Program Foundation is currently presenting its Third Annual Art and Eating Disorders exhibition at The Art Institute International Minnesota Art Gallery. The pieces of art demonstrate how eating disorders are viewed through the eyes of those who are struggling or recovering from an eating disorder. Art is a form of expression which can be interpreted in many ways. Some of these pieces demonstrate hope, loneliness, struggling, happiness, and confusion.

Each one of these art pieces are unique and reveal different messages to the audience. Just by looking at some of these pieces one can see and feel what the artist has experienced or what they are experiencing while struggling with an eating disorder.

Each one of these pieces has demonstrated the artist’s emotion using different types of material. For example, some artists used masks to demonstrate what their vision of an eating disorder is or what is going through their minds. Others used drawings, paintings, and even photography. The colors used in these pieces also play an important role in artist’s message. Some pieces used dark colors to demonstrate the loneliness, confusion, and depression that they were experiencing. While other pieces used lighter colors to show their appreciation of their bodies, the different things they can do and different activities they can engage themselves into. In one particular piece, the artist used a tree with multiple branches to demonstrate the progress from suffering with an eating disorder, but there is hope and growth shown by using blooming flowers. Another artist used something that we perceive has happiness, a rainbow, into a battle of emotions and a loss of identity.

Art is also a form of communication. The artists are communicating with the audience and describing to us their struggles and battles they experience on a daily basis.

This exhibition is an amazing way to learn about individual’s personal experience when struggling with an eating disorder.

Check the show out at:

Location:

The Art Institutes International Minnesota Art Gallery
15 South 9th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Building Hours: Mon-Fri 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM; Sat and Sun 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 21, 2013 from 5pm -7pm.

 

The artwork will be available for viewing on February 9th to March 14th, 2013.