Behind Smoke and Mask

Photos taken by contributor Katie Kelleher, a freelance artist living in Asheville, North Carolina. She has been faced with mental health challenges, including bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia, and self harm, leading to hospitalizations, treatments, hardships, and different turns along the journey. The experience of mental illness also came with the realization and the necessity to create something beautiful from that which seems broken, which much of her art and photography reflects.

About these photos: “The highs and lows of my bipolar disorder I wear as scars and tattoos beneath my sleeves. My skin is not unlike these graffiti covered walls, so it seemed appropriate to create a self portrait series in front of them, their secrets hiding just behind smoke and mask.”

Find more at Katie’s website, and her Instagram @kelleher_katie

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