“The Artist is Alive” an online-only art exhibition combines painting and poetry to take audiences through an immersive journey of the ups and downs of living with bipolar disorder
The paintings and poetry by Jasper Castro go live online July 15, 2022, Friday, 5 PM, at www.theartistisalive.online. It is best experienced with a desktop or by connecting to a larger screen, and a pair of headphones to enable the audience to simultaneously take in both the paintings and the recorded spoken word poetry.
Jasper discovered the limit of her own mental health in her early twenties when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A series of heartbreaks led to years-long clinical depression that stole years of her life. She and her doctor agreed that the blow-up was a long time coming, as symptoms for the disorder had been present since she was a suicidal 4-year-old. However, it was held off for a long time partly thanks to her consistent dedication to the arts.
Through this multidimensional rendering, both audience and artist are looking and hearing the same thing in the most intimate set-up–bringing their psyche to the same place. With this extreme empathy, the artist hopes to connect and befriend the audience as she handholds them through the exhibit to listen to her deepest darkest secrets.
As the audience journeys with her from brokenness to building herself back again, she bravely brings her secrets out into the open. As Jasper defiantly amplifies her voice, refusing to be silenced, giving it her all–with her colors and her words–she whispers one last desire into the world: she hopes to inspire her audience to share their secrets, too.
The whole collection is a celebration of life. This is the message the artist shares with the audience: that they are alive. Through the ups and downs, they have survived.
Curating the digital exhibit is Raymond Tribdino, who said “it works as a safe space. It starts with the artist completely opening her heart and her secrets to the world. By taking the first step, she hopes that the audience, too, would trust her as they dive in, and attempt to find healing together.”
