Meet Gianna Catanzarite

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gianna Catanzarite. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gianna below.

Gianna, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

In the past decade, I like to think I’ve demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination in overcoming significant mental health challenges. Last year, after reaching a breaking point, I made the courageous decision to seek professional help. I traveled across the country to be put in a treatment facility to work on myself and my issues. This two-month period in mental health treatment marked a pivotal moment in my journey. Despite having many aspects of my life seemingly in place, I was struggling internally, feeling overwhelmed and unable to move forward. By acknowledging the severity of my situation and taking the necessary steps to get help, I was able to move forward in my life. During treatment, I learned essential coping mechanisms, gained insights into my mental health, and developed strategies to manage my thoughts and emotions. But above all else, I learned how important art was to my healing journey. It’s the only way I’ve found to be able to express my emotions. After this experience, I left with a new outlook. I realized that I shouldn’t take all my art so seriously, and to return to the days where it brought me joy and comfort. And it’s such a great medium to communicate my struggles to other people. Reaching out for help was a critical step that allowed me to regain control over my life and continue my journey with a renewed sense of purpose.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Each of my earliest memories contain some sort of creativity. I specialize in makeup artistry, photography, and self-portraiture. But I’ve never truly been able to choose one medium to stick with. I like to bounce around to many different types of art so that I can combine each medium into one big piece of mixed media. My photography work includes portraits and self-portraits, where I explore different themes, emotions, and styles, creating visual stories that are both personal and universal. I pull a lot from my struggles with mental illness, eating disorders, OCD and unhealthy relationships. Through my self-portraits, I experiment with identity and self-expression, blending my skills in makeup and photography to produce compelling and artistic images to attempt to let the audience have a glimpse into my mind and emotions. I know I can never explain my hardships with words alone, so art is the only thing I have to tell my story.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

As advice to anyone out there, something I had to learn along the way is to not take everything so seriously. It’s really not that deep. If you mess up, who cares? No one really knows anything anyways. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned in my adulthood thus far is that nobody knows anything. When I was a child I thought adults knew everything. I thought they had it all figured out and knew every secret to the universe. So when I grew up and life started to spiral out of control, I thought there was something wrong with me. I wondered how all the other adults around me could have it all figured out. I spent so much time beating myself up for feeling “behind” in life. And it took me years but I finally realized that no one has anything figured out. Everyone is just spiraling out of control with no way to stop. And you just have to embrace it and harness the chaos. Just jump in head first and do your best. I was always so terrified of failing that I wouldn’t even attempt. Now I just run full force with my arms wide open. I finally found that even failure is better than being stagnant in this life.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

The number one obstacle I face each day is my own self perception. My reflection has always been my worst critic. I have trouble seeing myself for what I look like and I constantly feel as if I’m looking into a funhouse mirror. I’ve been trying to take my own advice and embrace the chaos. I try my best to stop worrying about things that don’t truly matter in this life. I continue to get therapy and help in resolving this. Art definitely helps too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Gmcartistry.com
• Instagram: @gianna.cattt

Image Credits

All images created by me!