I’m Good Because I Explore My Deepest Anxieties Through Journals & Stained Glass Kaleidoscopes

Catherine Edgerton is a self-identified queer multimedia artist who explores mental health through books, drawings, and stained-glass kaleidoscopes. She gifts her journals and kaleidoscopes to those struggling with mental health challenges, loss, or addiction. She is part of the Art Asylum, a collective in Durham, North Carolina that builds tool-kits, crisis prevention / intervention strategies, and concrete resources to resist stigma, undermine criminal / patient labels, and foster creativity and connectivity between and beyond its members.

I enjoy multi-media journaling and building stained glass kaleidoscopes to give away to others who are struggling with mental health challenges, loss, or addiction.  While we often feel isolated in our madness, the vulnerability we experience has the power to (and does) build a creative and brilliant collective strength among us. My hope is that the kaleidoscopes serve as tokens of support through times of struggle, letting light and patterns of color invite a moment of serenity and joy.

An important part of receiving a kaleidoscope is the re-gifting of it to another comrade who is struggling with the light and dark of madness. I hope that the re-gifting can contribute to healing through the resistance of stagnancy, the building of connectivity, and the letting go, allowing the kaleidoscope to take a life and journey of its own. (excerpt previously published on The Kaleidoscope Project).