Instagram artist addresses stigma of talking about mental health by making art with ‘honest messages’ that draws on her own experience of suffering a breakdown
- Activist artist Srayva Attaluri uses social media to share art that challenges the stigma about mental health, champions body confidence and promotes diversity
- Born in India, she moved to South Korea at a young age and then to Hong Kong – and learned to communicate with those around her through her paintings
As Covid-19 lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing contribute to the worsening state of mental health in Hong Kong and many other parts of the world, Sravya Attaluri’s work has become even more relevant.
Attaluri calls herself an “artivist”, combining the words artist and activist. In 2019, she started Draw For Mental Health, a platform for Hong Kong artists to share their mental health struggles through their work. In July 2021, the group organised an exhibition titled “Journey to Self”, showcasing the work of 10 artists.
Attaluri has created art for human rights organisations, mental health charities and multinational organisations. Earlier this year, Facebook hired Attaluri as its creative partner for Instagram’s “How To Keep Your Heart Happy” campaign. It educates and empowers girls and women, through videos, to use the new safety tools on Instagram to create a safe environment for them.
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“Moving countries and fitting in was hard. I did not speak Korean or Cantonese, and struggled to make deep connections with people,” says Attaluri, who took art in Seoul and communicated with her non-English-speaking teacher through her paintings.
“From a young age, I found confidence and solace in expressing myself through my artwork. My grandmother’s death, when I was 15, left me devastated. It triggered questions about life, faith and existence,” she says. She started drawing to cope with her grief and depression, and found it an outlet and mirror for her emotions.
In 2014, as a 19-year-old second-year studying Fine Arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in the United States, Attaluri had a physical and mental breakdown and tried to kill herself.
Her family realised that her depression was real – a result of not having the right tools to cope, not addressing family trauma and not communicating. Her parents underwent therapy, too, to better family relationships.
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“As a family, we changed the way we expressed our emotions, supported each other and tackled challenges,” says Attaluri.
“The making and experiencing of art has had thousands of years of documented positive impact on individuals,” says Dr Mark Greene, a psychotherapist at Lifespan Counselling in Hong Kong.
“Entire schools of psychotherapy that are based on expression through artistic means, whether in the form of drawing, painting and sculpting (art therapy), or dance, singing and drama (expressive arts therapy) show how entwined the arts are with positive expression and opportunities for promoting mental well-being,” Greene adds.
Attaluri soon discovered a way to share the emotional support that art gave her with others.
“At a conference on creativity, I saw a young artist demonstrate her illustrations on an iPad. I got the idea to combine my expressive paintings with visual communication to create artworks that educate, and motivate, others to take action on mental health issues that they may be facing,” she says.
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Attaluri started a 100-day challenge on Instagram in 2018 to draw and post an image every day.
“I was struggling with anxiety at the time, and wanted to use this opportunity to illustrate my daily emotions. This personal project transformed into a visual of my mental health journey, and I was surprised to see how the images resonated with others,” she says.
In 2019, Attaluri – then 24 – quit her job as a senior graphic designer at an advertising agency to pursue her dream of being an independent artist. Daily happiness forms the basis of her current work.
“My art will always reflect the state of my mental health and fluctuate between darker and lighter shades, but it has been and always will be about the pursuit of happiness,” says Attaluri.
Her day starts with daily doodles, an art therapy practice that involves drawing whatever comes to mind, and which helps her reflect on her feelings.
“I had to overcome self-doubt after years of believing that I wasn’t good enough. I sought approval and validity from people around me who did not see value in my career path. I learned that I had to focus on myself, my passion, to take risks and chase my dream,” she says.
She draws energy from her family and friends and the meaningful conversations they have about mental health and spirituality. “These dialogues become the base for my artwork and inspire me to go deeper into my interests,” she says.
“My aim is to create art with honest messages that provoke conversations on mental health and change how we as a society perceive mental health and mental illness.”
