A new online exhibition from individuals who have dealt with periods of psychosis aims to make sense of the experience which is still widely misunderstood
Artist Lisa Callaghan, with a screen print based on self portraits. Photo: James Connolly
While Lisa Callaghan, a 32-year-old HSE clerical officer, was mastering the art of printmaking, Conor Gavin, a 25-year-old peer support worker, was writing poetry. What connected them was an unexpected commonality — both had lived through psychosis.
Gavin discovered that “scribbling things down on paper” helped him to process an experience that, for many, eludes understanding. In printmaking, Callaghan found an avenue for “draining her stress bucket.” Born out of this unlikely fusion of art and the lived experience of psychosis, Callaghan and Gavin co-founded the Psychosis Arts Collective (PAC) earlier this year, a peer-led community of creatives who are interested in “making art and fighting stigma.”
