Alexandra Di Florio - Devastate

Instagram: @alexdiflorio.art

This piece is the representation of PTSD and its effects on the mind of an individual. This piece was inspired by my own experience with a recent traumatic event that resulted in a PTSD diagnosis. It aims to represent the power, gravity, and impact that the event had. Trauma by definition is “... the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a person’s sense of safety, sense of self and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships” (CAMH 2023). Fear is embedded within trauma and can rock you to your very core. This piece explored the relationship between traumatic incidents and the impact and devastation it can create in a person’s life. This is portrayed by the chaotic strokes and splattering of paint throughout the white canvas showing that the devastation created affects a person from many different directions at varying levels of intensity without rhyme or reason, to the naked eye.
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Note the deep, dark, sticky, black paint splattered over the blank canvas representing the intensity of the fear, chaotic destruction, and the many arms of fear and trauma reaching into every aspect of one’s life. This piece ties in with the main focus of this collection by portraying what fear looks like to me and the representation of my own fears and experience with intense and traumatic events.

 

References:
Centre for Addictions and Mental Health. “Mental Health and Addictions Index: Trauma.” CAMH
Mental Health and Addictions Index. January 2023. https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-
illness-and-addiction-index/trauma