Artwork / Everything’s Fine / Trying to Be Better

flying fish weighed down by an anchor, surrealist art by Gwenn Seemel
Gwenn Seemel
Trying to Be Better
2023
acrylic on panel
24 x 12 inches

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There are times when I think I’ve got a handle on my issues. I’ll go through a long period of not feeling rejected or consumed with anger—two of the main expressions of my mental health problems—and I’ll feel like I’m soaring. But then it all comes back again. At this point, my goal isn’t to rid myself of my anchor, just to make it ever smaller.

Trying to Be Better makes me think of this painting of a beaver, both for the underwater cross-section element and for the reminder that, under the surface, things are often more complicated than they might seem.

art about trying to be a better person
detail image