Presenting. . . Overstimulation 😵💫
Thanks to everyone who responded to our second prompt: overstimulation! Here are the (truly incredible) results:
“Me, Myself & I” by Indigo Trigg-Hauger
Perhaps this is a little too on the nose, but I found some pages in Bitch magazine that were too good not to used. I particularly liked this combination of "nothing, no one, everyone". It sums up that overstimulated feeling that nothing is possible because everything is in your face and crawling through your brain. The central three characters I think are three aspects of myself, and I can't deny that it made me think of my worst habit that I sometimes pick up, using my phone in bed. Almost as though the overstimulated me is killing the calm me -- or vice versa?
“Tell Me Why It Hurts” by Eleanor Cummins
Much of my October was consumed by health anxiety. I just haven’t been able to handle the strange new symptoms I've developed. It’s like my body is “talking” to me, ceaselessly, in a language I do not speak. The chatter is relentless, and I am frayed at the edges from trying and failing to make sense of it.
One upside? This collage flowed so easily. I ended up layering together the overstimulation of the external world (represented by the subway scene) with the overstimulation of the internal dialogue (the voltage, the dancer). Frida Kahlo, a disability rights activist before we even had the words for it (!), perfectly bridges the inner and outer world.
“Untitled” by Melissa Trigg-Collins
I purposely chose black and white to contrast the colors and chaos all around. The words are layered on top of each other to the point where they mean nothing. I feel so overwhelmed and overstimulated most of the time by the messages being “shouted” at me through all the media that is part of my everyday life.
“Crime” by Hannah Seo
Since my collage for last month was pretty crowded and overstimulating, I didn't want to go too hard in that same direction. I started with the girl meditating in a lotus flower and stuck her on a cool background to start. I wanted the whole thing to seem like errant thoughts were hampering her meditation, hence the random images all around and the radioactive symbol on the brain. But then I found the line "It was a crime to bore Barbara" in a NY Mag article about Barbara Walters, and thank god for that! I feel like it turns the whole piece around: she can't meditate because of all this noise, but thank goodness, heaven forbid she be bored.
“Untitled” by Meg Duff
This prompt hit right after I went to the Brooklyn Book Fair and brought home a stack of swag, completely overwhelmed with what it means to try to bE AN AuTHoR. I came home and set myself to cutting out every author photo from one free issue of the American Poets Society magazine. There were dozens, all looking knowing, or pained, or conspiratorial; each representing a universe of hopes and dreams and books I will never read. I hung their smiles on a precarious clothesline. Too overwhelmed with my own writing to secure them with glue, I took a few snapshots instead, before scooping up the faces and depositing them into a jar for safekeeping. The jar of poets felt poetic, so I took a photo of that too. I took said photos with a digital camera, which meant fussing with a sim card (overwhelming, obviously!) which is why this entry is arriving late.
That’s all for October folks! Now’s a great time to get working on our November theme - dreams - and share your creations with us via email at a.hannah.seo@gmail.com by the end of the month. Please include a photo of your artwork, a title, and (optional) a short description of the piece and/or your process. Thank you!