“I had always struggled to vocalise my emotions, and especially to give voice to my struggles with anxiety. It came over me in waves, leaving me with ‘black dog days’ where I would try to function, but even the simplest things seemed nigh-on impossible. While facing up to a bad patch after the first Covid lockdown, I desperately needed to get out and reconnect with nature and the countryside around me, so I decided to take on the challenge of walking the 100-mile plus Norfolk Coastal Path. Little did I know that this would lead to something much bigger, and therapeutic for me.
The idea to document it through drawing came hand-in-hand and seemed like a logical step to me. I’d hardly started before I saw comparisons everywhere to mental health – the echoes between the crumbling cliffs gradually and unseeingly undermined before collapsing dramatically, akin to the struggles with dementia eating away at a person’s mind are as clear as the vast Norfolk skies.
The walk took time; spread out over five long days, there was ample time to document what I passed in photos, recordings, sound graphs and sketches, and to see parallels with mental health, consider them objectively, and see in them my own struggles.
When I arrived home, I could hardly wait to start expressing this, but it had to be in a way that made sense to me. A way that would give me a ‘voice’. The walk was as natural as it was panoramic, so the choice of homemade charcoals and inks applied by hand to large rolls of paper almost made itself. These materials, so natural, mirror life so well with its fragility, and ongoing, manipulative ways – with the paper winding up past drawings like memories, then unrolling in front of me like the page wanting to be filled with the day ahead. The large sheets allowed me to express myself in a way that small-scale controlled work does not, and I was able to shout through a universal language of loose mark-making and interpretive drawing in a way I never could orally. Applying direct touch to the work, was primal yet humbling, and added a therapeutic side to the whole process.
Predominantly black and white, there are areas of darker and lighter monotones mirroring not only the scenery and the weather but also my moods. Flashes of orange are traceable throughout, echoing the rust, the carr-stone, the tangled fishing nets and wires. Soothing bird song sound-graphs dance in the skies, depicting how they were as full of action as the shoreline and waves below them.
The process of producing the work has been cathartic for me, so despite the recognisable locations, much of the context of the piece is still very personal and private, and so I’m still cautious about displaying it publicly – the process may have helped me voice my struggles, but it hasn’t rid me completely of my anxiety. However, it has offered me an invaluable outlet to express myself and evaluate myself.
The panoramic work has also helped others suffering from mental health issues, to be able to connect with the work, to offer it as a soundboard, while it may also help those who want to understand the struggles better – to walk alongside the panorama’s length is to undertake the journey oneself.
Displaying the work back at the coast which inspired it seems fitting, with Gorleston, as the closest suitable location to the end of the Norfolk Coastal path being the right place to bring this part of the journey to an end. Placing the work on the sea defences was apt. As the sea wars against the land, so do we with our daily stresses and troubles.
I say “this part” because although this view of Norfolk may be complete, its coastline is ever-changing, and I know that I will walk its length again, perhaps capturing how it has changed in the meantime, the pain and loss it has felt in the interim. And then there is the itch that is simply continuing on, down into Suffolk and beyond, scratching further and exploring more, both literally and metaphorically”.
CV
A Level Art and Design – Norwich University of Art – 1992
Photojournalism – NCTJ Sheffield – 1996
Press photographer – Wessex News Agency, Berkshire,
& Eastern Daily Press, Norfolk, – 1997 to 2000
Freelance designer and photographer – 2000 to 2007
Foster carer & day support carer (teens and young people) – FCA – 2007 to 2012
Fine Art BA Hons, 1st exceptional – Open University – 2024
Exhibition: Loudness of Loneliness, 2.5m x 1m x 10 paper panoramic people. Invitation only. The Annex, Loddon, Norfolk (Nov 2019).
A short recording can be viewed here:
View ‘Loudness of Loneliness’ on YouTube
Exhibition: Journey of a Troubled Mind, 80m paper panoramic. Invitation only
The Undercroft, Norwich, Norfolk (October 2022).
A recording can be viewed online here:
View ‘Journey of a Troubled Mind at the Undercroft’ on YouTube
Exhibition: Journey of a Troubled Mind (continued works), totalling of 140m paper panoramic. Invitation and open to the public.
Outdoors on location, Gorleston On Sea, Norfolk (October 2024).
Images and recordings can be viewed online here:
View ‘Journey of a Troubled Mind, 140m paper panoramic in situ, on YouTube
OCA Edge, online zine, ‘Home’ edition, Winter 2024. [online PDF].
Available to view at: OCA Edge, Winter 2024
More videos of my work with and without annotations can be found via
YouTube page: www.youtube.com/@NatashaDavyArt
for sharing experiences of our environmental and mental health issues.
Website header image shows work from 2024. All images are subject to copyright.