Serenity

Serenity is a body of work that combines botany and self-portraits to help express a personal journey with Alina’s mental health. For years she was unknowingly dealing with PTSD from a traumatic event in her past and the wonderful aid of therapy allowed her to finally understand why her brain behaved the way it did.

At the start of this chapter, she found herself turning to nature for answers and guidance. In return, the environment around her showed examples of how nature can be complicated like the human brain. During the time Alina spent around nature she could ground herself and think calmly about the sudden flashbacks that were occurring frequently since the start of therapy.

Re-creating the flashbacks and self-deprecating thoughts through self-portraits was the only way for Alina to detach herself from those current feelings. This became therapeutic in itself as she was able to project her thoughts on the image to create something physical which became easier to understand and process.