For the final project–the Armor Project–I was required to create an armor for a social issue that I want to address through my artwork. The topic that I chose for this project is depression; as we were required to create three pieces that goes with our armors, I ended up creating a mask of true feelings, a cape of treatments, and a megaphone of awareness. 

In our current society, depression is the leading mental illness in both the world and the U.S.—although statistics show that developed countries have higher rates of depression, it is estimated that around 70% of the individuals who are experiencing this illness, especially for those in developing countries, are not receiving treatments. Thus in reality, it is approximated that developing countries may have much higher rates of depression than statistics show. This points to the tragic truth that despite depression being more and more widely accepted and reassessed in the US, depression is still un illness that is often overlooked and is not given proper treatment to worldwide. 

Depression is an illness that requires awareness for both the patient, for those around such patients, and for society itself. Oftentimes, patients of depression are discouraged to seek treatment because depression is associated with feelings of apathy and self-hatred; many end up believing that their symptoms are just “being lazy,” an “over-reaction,” or even, the patients feel that they do not have “the right reasons” to be depressed. To assess such problems, I titled my project “The Speaker of Its True Feelings”–the person who wears my armor will be someone who is outspoken of his or her own emotions and knows how to present their feelings in a healthy way. Challenging the patients who put on an everyday mask to hide their feelings, I created a “mask of true feelings” that automatically guides people to speak of their true emotions instead of hiding them. On my cape, I attached symbols that represent the treatments to a depression, going along with my megaphone, which raises awareness of the illness to the public.