"It's therapeutic every time I paint."
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Claire Clifton won this year's Ballarat Mental Health Week art competition with a matched pair of paintings titled Alive Again - the abstract works are "total expression," she said.
"Having had a couple of mental health episodes in my life, sometimes it's really hard to put into words what you're feeling, or the depths of feeling - I was really turning to the abstract art field to express how I was feeling," she said.
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"The two artworks were really reflective of night and day, making up 24 hours - when you're in a mental health episode, it feels like it's never ending and it's just one long episode.
"To divide it into night and day, it gives you those chunks, so you can take it piece by piece.
"I was feeling quite shocked when I got up in the morning, and thinking "oh, I'm still here", so that's where I got the words Alive Again."
The annual competition attracted dozens of entries, and included paintings, sculptures, sketches, and cartoons.
Judged by the Ballarat Arts Foundation's Kiri Smart, this year's entries were exhibited online - many are available to purchase, and voting for the People's Choice closes on October 22.
Cartoonist Justin Hayward finished third for his Depresso the Black Dog series, and Marcia King's The Door You Don't Open was second.
Alana Scoble and Julie Spriggs received encouragement awards - Ms Spriggs' intensely detailed work Withdrawal came together in about a day, she said.
"It's just flowing through - I started off measuring and drawing a face, then what I do is maybe draw some facial features, but quite abstract, or I'll draw an illusion that fits into that space and another that fits around it," she said.
"I've entered it before, but I hadn't entered in a couple of years so I thought why not, let's give it a go - it was kind of a last minute thing, really."
Ms Smart's comments note it was a different experience judging an online exhibition instead of in-person.
"If lockdown has taught me anything, it is that for me, personally, the real power of art is in the materials; the texture; the scale; the whole experience of being in the space around the work," she wrote.
Ms Clifton said when talking about mental health, it's not helpful to just put people in a box.
"A lot of people won't get what you're saying or how you feel, they'll tell you to cheer up, and that's not what it's about, there's something more fundamental about mental health that's different in everybody," she said.
"So being able to express yourself authentically brings you out the other side a much stronger person - every story is going to be different, no two people's mental health journey will be the same either."
To view the works, head to the Ballarat Community Health website.
If you or someone you know is in need of crisis support, phone Lifeline 13 11 14.
Help is also available, but not limited, via the following organisations. The key message is you are not alone.
- Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 or beyondblue.org.au
- Suicide Callback Service: 1300 659 467
- Mensline: 1300 789 978 or mensline.org.au
- Survivors of Suicide: 0449 913 535
- Relationships Australia: 1800 050 321
- headspace Ballarat (for 12-25s and parent support): 5304 4777
- Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
- Soldier On: 1300 620 380
- Ballarat Community Health: 5338 4500
- QLife: 1800 184 527 (Support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people)
- Family violence: 1800 RESPECT
- Veterans support: Open Arms on 1800 011 046 or openarms.gov.au
- Ballarat Mental Health Services: 5320 4100 or after hours on 1300 247 647
- For Aboriginal crisis support: Yarning SafeNStrong, 1800 959 563 (noon to 10pm)