Yayoi Kusama channels her maddening visions of dots into her popular and influential artwork. Suppressing her art was the cause of her mental illness and expressing it, the medicine.
“My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings. All my works in pastels are the products of obsessional neurosis and are therefore inextricably connected to my disease. I create pieces even when I don’t see hallucinations, though.”
“Because my mother was so vehemently against my becoming an artist, I became emotionally unstable and suffered a nervous breakdown. It was around this time, or in my later teens, that I began to receive psychiatric treatment. By translating hallucinations and fear of hallucinations into paintings, I have been trying to cure my disease.”
Through her art, she demonstrates the power of creative expression in our personal lives and our society. Art has the potential to heal and to bring light into the world.
https://news.artnet.com/people/yayoi-kusama-quotes-birthday-447770