The Layered Onion--Peeling Back the Layers

Harper Hazelmare shares their wisdom, creations, and the importance of community for artists with mental health challenges. Harper discusses their poem from The Shallot, using onion skins as a botanical dye, and keeping a community apothecary.  

The Layered Onion had a chance to find out how Luna Lovegood and lunar phases inspired Luna Hao and her photography and health. 

Seema Shah talks with The Layered Onion about the layers of her creations, and how writing led to multimedia visual art. Since 2017, Seem has searched for opportunities to share their work in ways that feel personally meaningful, including several group exhibitions specific to illness and disability, Outsider art, and collage.

Martina, a playwright, and author from Ireland shares her path to writing plays and how dark humor can be used to connect with the audience. Martina discusses how mental health can be challenging especially during hard times and some lessons learned.  

Dheeraj Kumar is a multi-media artists from Bangalore, India. Dheeraj discusses their work as a silent storyteller using art to allow us to visualize the beauty of the human body and its intersection with nature. Dheeraj talks about how mental health has influenced his work. 

Jenny is a multi-media creator who talks about the connection between mental health and art. Jenny discusses her piece in The Shallot called Derby Stance. If you ever had an interest in learning about how one learns how to be a roller derby skater, here's your chance!

John, a multidisciplinary artist from Calgary, Alberta, talks about schizoaffective disorder and how it influences their visual art, writing their book, We Make Clocks, Not Time, and their recent single, Walk.  Note: Our opening podcast music is Walk. You can listen to it in full on Spotify.

Maggie Bowyer, a poet from North Carolina, discusses spoken word, life with chronic and mental health challenges, and the healing power of art.

Mohammad Amin Nayebi (Amin) shares how his work with a boy/girl scouting non-governmental organization (NGO) helped evolve his photography passion. Amin also talks about his life as a refugee from Afghanistan waiting for his immigration application to be approved.