Marbles By Ellen Forney

Representing Mania in Illustrations

Ellen Forney's Marbles is a memoir about her experience of coming to terms with her diagnoses of bipolar disorder and finding balance between the mania and depression states. Forney art allows The reader is able to get an inside understanding of how Ellen's outer life experiences while revealing her inner state of mind and how she feels during these two polar moods. Forney's illustrations can be sorted into two groups, Ellen in the state of depression, and Ellen in the state of mania. She uses dark contrast, doodles, empty space, and exaggerations in her art to translates her mood and perspective to the page. Below are a few examples of her she illustrated her manic episodes.

An illustration of her extremely large and wild back tattoo.

Big eyes, stars, and lines coming from her face and body.

Big eyes, stars, lines, and the many ideas and thoughts going on in her mind.

Different mood states, many that can be identified throughout the book.

Doodles, stars, and lines, represent her being pulled away by her manic episodes.

Making connections to other artist with mental illnesses.


Drawing herself not as how she truly looks but how the mania makes her feel.

A chart describing her moods and doodles that represent her manic or depressed states. 

Mania can make you feel like you are on top of the world

but mania also drains everything from you and leaves you feeling depressed.

My Illustrations of Anxiety and Stress




Comments

  1. SKApril 7, 2019 at 8:37 AM

    Another really good blog. I'm impressed with the way you set up the images with only a few words but they completely convey the point you're trying to make. Also, while I'm not sure if the spin-off at the end works, I appreciate that you added it.

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