P2- Self-Care

My name is TingTing, and I am a junior trying to focus on school amidst these crazy times. With this pandemic, many students/professionals are trying to learn and grow through sitting in front of their screens for hours upon hours each day. Experiencing this myself, I felt that the need and attention for self-care weren’t lining up. We all need it, but we all don’t prioritize it as we think we are already in a “comfortable place”/”don’t have to move around since everything is digital” type of place. With this in mind, I wanted to create a poster that sold the idea of self-care.

For this poster, I chose to hand-draw it. I know that this method may be less “clean” and “flashy” compared to what computer programs could do. However, I chose to do this for two reasons. One is that I think self-care means recognizing that we don’t need to be as cookie-cutter perfect as what our education may ask of us. I wanted the rough edges, the not perfect lines, the pencil and pen smudges to shine through. The second reason was that I wanted to embody part of this message while creating it. I took some time away from the screen and just focused on drawing this poster. I also chose to make this poster minimalistic (not too much). Though it may look a bit bare, I chose to create my visuals with as few lines as possible as well as to add no color in order to represent that self-care should be stripping ourselves to just “me, myself, and I”. The poster shows the back of somebody’s figure on a couch looking at a screen of some sort. The screen depicts a person sitting on a couch. I wanted the “screen” to be ambiguous so that some audience members may see a person watching TV (a very valid way to relax), or some may see a person looking at themselves in a picture frame/mirror (representing self-reflection which is a form of self-care.

I want to thank my parents for inspiring this idea. They always remind me that it’s okay to take a break and not feel my best at times. That space they make for my self-care is something I wanted to share for others. My poster will eventually be available online here: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/sell+posters?gclid=CjwKCAjwwYP2BRBGEiwAkoBpAt2X2GhB2StnOzzfwrCBZNp5R2bf_thNJcjqBNc3IkOWuPBJRr7IbRoC7hQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds.

Here is a link to a website talking about different ways to embody self-care if you want to learn more: https://www.verywellmind.com/self-care-strategies-overall-stress-reduction-3144729