The Story Behind the Work
Hypomania 1 is the first in a series of works exploring the lived experience of hypomania, specifically the hypersexuality that can accompany elevated mood states. This is personal work, painted from the inside out.
Hypomania is a symptom of Bipolar 2 disorder, and while it is often described in clinical terms, the felt experience is something else entirely: a heightening of sensation, desire, and aliveness that is at once intoxicating and destabilising. This painting attempts to put colour and form to that feeling, the heat beneath the skin, the way the body becomes almost too present to inhabit.
The tight crop is deliberate. There is no distance here, no safe vantage point. The viewer is placed inside the experience rather than outside looking in.
How It Will Lift a Room:
This is an intimate, charged work that demands attention. The deep violet background gives the piece a richness and depth that works beautifully in low-light spaces, while the hot pink and red accents bring warmth and energy. It suits a bedroom, study, or private space where its intensity can be fully felt. For the right collector, this is a work that will mean something.
Materials
Created with acrylic paint on canvas board. The rigid surface lends itself to the layered, textured brushwork throughout, and the piece has a solidity and presence that belies its size.