Psychosomatic is a series of color pencil drawings created in 2023 for Desensitized, a group exhibition curated by Sydney Carmer. In 2024, Pyschosomatic was chosen by Nova Literary Arts Magazine for publication in Issue 55, and was displayed in the accompanying gallery exhibition at UNC Charlotte Popp Martin Student Union Galleries. The following is Kelli Crockett’s artist statement that was labeled next to the artwork during the show:
“In my series Psychosomatic, I wanted to focus on how our bodies can take on physical manifestations of psychiatric struggles in an ever-evolving and internet-focused world. The rise of the mental health crisis, especially in recent generations, bares no coincidence to the exposure to tragedy online. Oftentimes, disorders such as anxiety and depression are not taken seriously and disregarded as expected consequences of our world’s interconnectedness through the media. I wanted to demonstrate how present and physical these mental health issues can be— how they are not just something that is “all in your head” or somehow less important than all of the other, bigger issues we see happening online.
These three artworks depict abstract organic impressions of the brain, the heart, and the lungs. I imagined the organs themselves slowly taking on the impact of the illness, rotting into something that resembles a thorny plant. What would happen to your heart, for instance, if it never stops beating so fast from anxiety? I imagined how anxiety could affect the body physically, like headaches, palpitations, or hyperventilation. After digitally composing and traditionally abstracting the organs, I chose to display them on a blank background like one would see in a medical textbook.”
Kelli Crockett Art 