Every year on May 24, people around the world mark Schizophrenia & Psychosis Awareness Day – a time to reflect, learn, and strengthen public understanding of mental illness experiences that are often misunderstood or stigmatized.
On this day, we recognize the diverse realities of schizophrenia, psychosis, and other severe and persistent mental illnesses, while uplifting the voices of people with lived and living experience, caregivers, families, loved ones, and the broader communities who walk with them every day.
Awareness is one step toward compassion, dignity, and meaningful change.
This year, we invited members of the BCSS community and our supporters to share creative works that reflect their connections to mental illness, caregiving, healing, and hope. Artists from across British Columbia and Canada contributed paintings, poetry, photography, mixed media pieces, and more, each one offering a personal perspective shaped by experience and care.
We are honoured to present these works, celebrating the artists whose generosity has helped create space for understanding, expression, and collective hope.
Manzanita Snow – Port Clements, BC
Created after one of the most devastating environmental disasters of the 21st century; the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
“Our relationship with Mother Earth was being called out. It was a warning. And it was loud. Today, the threat persists, yet we continue to take but what of the suffering? The hunger? Our eyes are open – we know pain, and to cope, I paint. “ – Manzanita Snow
Manzanita has generously donated this piece for auction with the proceeds going to the local Haida Gwaii Mental Health and Addiction Committee to assist residents with medical and travel expenses.
Learn more about Manzanita and her artwork here.
Joe Sahonovich – Daajing Giids, BC
Charleen Wesley – Skidegate, BC
Learn more about Charleen and her artwork here.
Val Robinson – Victoria, BC
Val is a mixed media artist who creates her own inks using natural materials from rudbeckia, coreopsis flowers, onion skins, plum bark, and more. Her art is deeply connected to both nature and personal healing, and she describes her creative practice as a form of therapy.
This piece was inspired by the loss of a friend to mental health challenges and reflects how she now envisions them: gently held within and becoming one with nature.
Gabrielle Haynes – Vancouver, BC
Gabrielle painted this image after experiencing psychosis for a year. It depicts the manic energy and religious delusions she experienced during that time.
Learn more about Gabrielle and her artwork here.
Caelum Nutbrown – Maple Ridge, BC
Juxtaposition of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X by Caelum Nutbrown
Theresa Moleski – Delta, BC
Bold, colorful and thought provoking, Theresa is a multi-media artist who is inspired by nature.
Learn more about Theresa and her artwork here.
Anne Miles – Gibbons, BC
After the Fire at the Shelter. Poems.
Anne wrote these two poems after a fire at the local homeless shelter put her son on the street again. For her own safety, she could not take him in.
“It broke my heart.” – Anne Miles, Artist
Her son is currently living in supportive housing close to where Anne lives and is getting better care from the mental health system.
Pat Forest – BC
Catherine Hawthorn – Oshawa, ON
Catherine’s work explores lived experience through photography and college, with a focus on dignity, agency, and human connection.
She’s drawn to stories shaped by mental health challenges, displacement, and the complexity of being human, where meaning is often fragmented but still deeply present. Through a collaborative and respectful process, Catherine creates images that hold both vulnerability and strength. At its core, her work is an invitation to connect and to find moments of hope within that connection.
Learn more about Catherine and her artwork here or follow her on Instagram @hawthornphotography.
Niall Hetherington – Windsor, ON
The works shared here come from across British Columbia and Canada, spanning land and water, city and community.
Together, they reflect grief and resilience, fragmentation and connection, anger, and gentleness. Some pieces speak quietly; others demand to be seen. All of them ask us to slow down and consider the realities of psychosis and mental illness not as abstractions, but as lived experiences shaped by relationships, systems, and love.
This gallery does not offer a single narrative of illness or recovery. Instead, it holds many truths at once. The pain of being misunderstood, the weight carried by families and caregivers, the impact of injustice, and the moments of beauty, creativity, and hope that persist alongside struggle. In sharing their work, these artists have offered more than art; they have offered trust.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed, viewed, and shared this collection.