Mental illnesses expressed through art

October 5, 2020 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Grace Blummer-Lamotte

There are many different mental illnesses in the world. This can include depression, anxiety, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Schizophrenia, ADHD, and many others.

Some choose to show their feelings through journaling, painting, drawing, sketching, charcoal, and other mediums. Usually many different artworks have a bigger meaning behind the actual art: it could be a personal connection or a traumatic experience.

Around the end of June, in summer 2020, I struggled a lot with my mental health. I went through many different programs and I still am. I like showing my feelings of my mental illnesses through art. I do not like talking about it because I feel like I can’t find the words, but I can draw pictures of it. I currently have a sketchbook full of many of my paintings of my feelings throughout the past 4 months.

To other people, they just see a simple painting. They don’t see the big picture behind it. One of my paintings has a human head profile that appears to be drowning, with their mouth stitched up. Many people just see an amazing painting and don’t ask about the story behind it. My story behind this specific drawing is when I was at the lowest point in my life I felt like I was drowning. I was drowning but I couldn’t say anything because my mouth was stitched up. The water represented my thoughts and feelings. I just had to sit there in my thoughts and feelings and not say anything about it; drowning silently while having no one notice, no one care, no one supporting me.

According to the Western Journal of Medicine, the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh had evidence of manic depression and alcohol abuse. Much of his artwork could suggest a bigger story behind them. He uses the color yellow a lot in all of his art; that could be because of his alcohol abuse, as he drank absinthe that contains thujone. “Excessive consumption of this liqueur may cause the consumer to see all objects with a yellow hue.” Another explanation of this theory was Van Gogh using overmedication with digitalis. When people receive large doses of this medication they often see the world with a yellow/green-tint. In his most famous painting, “The Starry Night”, he produces a bit of the color yellow around the painting. Sadly in 1890 he committed suicide.

Editorials/Student Voice

Why Bob Woodward’s Trump interview should concern everyone

October 2, 2020 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Quentin Miller.

Many may already be aware of the recently leaked interviews between Trump and the famous reporter Bob Woodward. But for those who have not heard of it, to build anticipation for his upcoming book, Bob Woodward leaked parts of interviews between him and Trump regarding his presidency.

One specific part of this interview, conducted on Feb 7th according to The Washington Post, contained Trump saying “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”, implying that he was very aware that COVID-19 was much more deadly than he let on.

Speaking of what he let on, here’s what he had to say on Feb 28th at his South Carolina rally, 21 days after admitting COVID-19 was a serious threat, “Whoever thought of this two weeks ago? Who would’ve thought this could be going on four weeks ago?”. You, you did Trump.

Now, why should this concern you? Well under UN definition, a decision is considered genocide if it has the intention to destroy part of/the entirety of an ethnic or religious group based off of their ethnicity or religion, and one of the following acts associated with it:

Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

So, theoretically, if Trump knew that poorer people can’t get proper medical treatment and that poorer areas in the U.S. are normally made of minorities, and he showed a clear motive for wanting to commit genocide, that would make a very clear case for the hundreds of thousands of deaths due to corona to be genocide. According to PBS, on Jun 11th, 2016, Trump claimed, “You live in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs” while referring to African Americans. This clearly shows he is aware African American people, or as he likes to say “The Blacks,” face clear financial disadvantages.

Also, according to The New York Times, Trump, during April 2020, said this when referring to a plan to cover uninsured treatments of COVID-19, “This should alleviate any concern uninsured Americans may have about seeking the coronavirus treatment.” This shows that he is aware people who can’t afford/don’t own an insurance policy need aid in paying for treatment.

But what could the motive be? As has been reported on by PBS’ NewsHour, there are many possibilities.

Maybe the idea that Mexico is the enemy to the United States, and implying many Hispanics are rapist is his motive. But if blatant racism and harsh language towards Mexico and its people wasn’t evidence enough that he has disdain towards minorities, just take the words of Rep. Elijah Cummings who claimed Trump’s words and actions are hurtful and offensive to the black community.

So, maybe it’s the fact that he constantly voiced support and thanks to African American’s during Black History Month, only to completely ignore them almost directly after Black History Month was over.

Or maybe it’s when he openly supported “Stop and Frisk” laws which have been proven to discriminate against minorities.

Maybe his claim that the reason black youth have a hard time is because of their lack of spirit is his motive. Or when he called people protesting the very suspicious death of Freddie Gray “thugs,” aware of the fact that the majority of them were black.

So, Trump has a motive for genocide, let a pandemic he knew was deadly devastate poor areas, and knew that demographics he was clearly racist towards would be hit hard by his actions. In short, he committed genocide in the opinion of this writer. And any world leader who is genocidal against minorities should concern you.

For more information, please check out the following:

‘Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans’ by: Robert Costa and Philip Rucker, at The Washington Post
‘Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally Transcript – February 28, 2020’ on rev.com
‘What exactly Trump has said about race’ by:Lisa Desjardins, at PBS NewsHour

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Parasite’: Truly the Best Picture

October 2, 2020 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Hayden Fitzsimons

Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’ was a revolutionary movie for the world of film, as it may have changed the award system forever.

The release of ‘Parasite’ in 2019 was met with immediate fanfare, as many critics claimed it was the best of the year. Once ‘Parasite’ hit Western consumers, the general consensus of the public aligned with that of the critics, for once.

In Korea, prior to ‘Parasite’ being internationally released, the film was a blockbuster which grossed around 70 million dollars, making it one of the most successful films in Korean history. Internationally (including Korea), ‘Parasite’ grossed 211 million dollars, but in America & Canada it grossed only around 50 million.

‘Parasite’ was an instant hit, however many still didn’t see it despite rave reviews. So, for those who didn’t see it, was ‘Parasite’ really the Best Picture?

The likelihood of ‘Parasite’ winning, or even getting nominated, for Best Picture was low from the start. The Oscars’ track record of best picture nominations hasn’t been the best, as ‘Parasite’ was the first foreign language film to ever win Best Picture. So, despite the sheer quality of ‘Parasite’ being so high, the belief in the film getting any recognition was low. Fortunately, for the movie-going audience, the Oscars didn’t mess up for once.

‘Parasite’ was nominated, which was enough for some who had become cynics towards the seemingly inept Oscars Academy. Yet, to many’s surprise, ‘Parasite’ actually won. If ‘Parasite’ seemingly deserved the Best Picture win so much, what was it about?

‘Parasite’ follows the Kim family, who are a lower class family struggling to survive. The son of the family, Ki-woo, manages to get a job as the tutor to the daughter of the Park family, an extremely rich family, and he eventually manages to get all of the other workers fired and replaced by his family. This leads to a meteoric rise in wealth for the Kim family. However, the fired employees are not all out of the Kims’ lives, leading to a karma-filled struggle to keep their lies and their new life from unraveling.

The story on it’s own is compelling enough, but Bong Joon-ho brings out the best of his performers and their acting transforms the film to another level. Not to mention the constant messages layered into the dialog, cinematography, and nearly every detail of the film. Without a doubt, ‘Parasite’ is a once-in-a-lifetime film which undoubtedly deserved the award for Best Picture.

Fashion/Make-Up

Fast fashion is bad and here’s why

October 1, 2020 HPSH Plaid Line 1 Comment

By Anna Hisle

If you’re like me, you love to shop. But do you really take the time to think about where and how that cute American Eagle top was made? While that shirt may be cute, it is being made in sweatshops who hire underpaid workers (sometimes even children) to make hundreds or even thousands of the same clothes.

So, you may be asking yourself what is fast fashion? Fast fashion is cheap trendy clothing.

These clothes are produced quickly while they are still in style and sold to shoppers who snatch them up right away. While these clothes are sold at the height of their popularity, they are quickly discarded once they are no longer in style. Sometimes these clothes are even only worn 1 or 2 times.

Impacts

Fast fashion has a very bad impact on the environment; there is a lot of pressure to speed up production and make costs lower.

Producers also use very cheap and toxic textile dyes. According to “Good On You,” using these cheap dyes makes the fashion industry one of the largest polluters of clean water globally.

According to “Mamoq,” it takes 2.70 liters of water to produce one cotton t-shirt. Now think about how much those t-shirts cost.

Because there is so much clothing being produced, and so quickly, there are overwhelming amounts of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions distributed polluting the air. The microfibres in polyester also shed and contribute to ocean pollution.

Alternatives

Instead of buying clothes from fast fashion brands start buying sustainable clothing, going thrifting, or even just buying from small or local businesses.

By buying from sustainable clothing brands, you are not only helping the environment but you are also not supporting the employment of underpaid workers.

When you buy clothes from small or local businesses, you are supporting the people who are trying to make a name for themselves as well as just helping out a business that is not horrible for the environment.

By thrifting, you are buying people’s used clothes. This means that you are not buying directly from fast fashion brands but from second hand stores.

Sustainable clothing brands VS. fast fashion brands

While you’ve read this article and learned what fast fashion is, you probably still don’t know what brands are sustainable and which are bad for the environment.

Some fast fashion clothing brands include: