Drawings from life

Abstract

Artist Bobby Baker was happily married with two children when her life unravelled in 1996 and she began self-harming. In January, 1997, she self-referred to Pine Street Day Centre in London, UK. “I planned to be there for three weeks and found a small sunny art room”, she says. “I made a strict rule: to do a diary drawing every single day I was there.” It proved an excellent means for Baker to cope with mental illness and helped her communicate her feelings during a decade of therapy. A book of diary drawings, culled from 711 made while she battled her personal demons, might not promise a load of laughs, but Baker's self-deprecatory humour carries the day. Her acute observations of National Health Service treatment, coupled with verbal wit, ameliorate the rawness of her anguish. Throughout her illness, she managed to develop her artistic career with performances that toured internationally. Baker was admitted to crisis houses for short spells, as an alternative to acute psychiatric inpatient admissions. She also experienced care in the community and was referred for dialectical behaviour therapy. In mid-2005, during a longer admission, she almost gave up and refused to be put back on medication. She “talked her way out” and took matters into her own hands; self-prescribing exercise, a healthy diet, and writing. As her mental health improved, Baker was troubled by arthritis and then, in 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She includes the words “CLASSIC CANCER” within her oncologist's speech bubble in her Day 663 drawing. “This was shocking news but I really appreciated this consultant's direct approach”, she says wryly. She included her own comment in her Day 664 drawing: “Well…. It's a relief actually, to have something you're not judged for.” Baker recovered in 2008 and Diary Drawings records her 2009 exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection. It would be interesting to read her clinical case notes and see what Baker's health-care professional carers made of her. But her drawings confirm the value of having fortitude and a good sense of humour. “For myself, I am an optimist. It does not seem to be much use being anything else”, is one of Baker's favourite Winston Churchill sayings.