All Sky, Mirror Ocean

Book excerpt: "All Sky, Mirror Ocean weaves and knots autobiography, research-creation, and creative philosophy into an exploration of mental illness, healing, and visionary art. Looking to uncover and tell new stories about trauma and recovery, visual artist Brad Necyk explores his own histories with Bipolar Affective Disorder and childhood medical trauma alongside those of groups dealing with grief and loss: communities in Iqaluit aggrieved by suicide; head and neck cancer patients in Edmonton; and psychiatric inpatients at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. These lived experiences intertwine with scholarship on research-creation, neuroscience, collaboration, and altered states to reveal the understanding and acceptance that comes from acknowledging our deep connections--to ideas and emotions, to our environments, to art, and to each other. Filled with art and stream of consciousness writing, the book celebrates the spontaneous-emotional mode of creativity. Showing deep compassion and wisdom, All Sky, Mirror Ocean hopes to be an exemplar for multimodal research-creation exploration and artistic fieldwork and is for all readers looking to understand the complex issues around mental illness and healing."--