Art

Semi-artistic-casual is how my former boss would describe me! The first part refers to my great dedication to and love of science. Now is the time to address the other, equally important side of me that stands and holds its own, never conflicting with my scientific side but rather complementing it. Art.

Art is of endless and vital importance to (my) mental health and the inspiration and fuel that nurtures me in our fast-paced modern human world.

Artistic content about mental health that I can offer you includes:

1. My original music and jingles that promote mental health
2. Prose and metaphors that simplify and familiarise important concepts from psychology and psychotherapy
3. Various creative and artistic content related to mental health (for now mostly on my website and Instagram and TikTok profiles)
4. Creative collaborative projects about mental health
5. Using creative techniques and art in individual counselling
6. Personalised empowering music track composed just for you based on our interview
7. Creating other empowering artistic content about a defined topic (song, poetry, prose, etc.)
8. Writing and performing motivating speeches and lectures about mental health

In addition to materials showcasing the direct connection between art and mental health, I can offer you the following:

1. Covers of contemporary and classical songs from different musical genres, predominantly in English (me as the lead singer in collaboration with my fellow musicians/guitarist and keyboardist).

Note: opera covers are also available

1. Composing melodies and/or writing lyrics based on a topic chosen by you
2. Voice-over (speech and music) for your materials and content on company websites, multimedia, etc.
3. Creating original entertainment and/or educational materials simplifying your company’s content
4. Creating visually appealing and creative infographics to showcase your company data; preparing mental health reports or reports on any other topic
5. Other collaborations on creative projects unrelated to mental health
6. Producing advertisements
7. Other services – ask and we will see what we can do! ;)

Here are a couple of stories of how I ‘pushed forward’ my artistic ideas.

MENTAL HEALTH AND ART

Once again, I come to hear the same words… Why aren’t you happy and ain’t feeling good?

…SPRING 2023

On 21 March 2023, on World Poetry Day and the first day of spring, I released my original song Emocije svijeta (Emotions of the World)! Above are the first lyrics of my song. The message I wanted to convey through the music and lyrics was very important to me because I have spent a lot of time thinking about how much more free and understood all of us would be if we truly allowed ourselves to just be human. When I asked myself what that would entail, what would it mean to allow yourself to embrace your humanity, I realised that all of it begins in the very core of our heart – our emotions. (You can find information about the song and pictures from filming in my first blog post ‘Filming of the song Emocije svijeta’.)

AWARD WINNING SONGS ON MENTAL HEALTH

My original songs ‘Walk in my shoes’ and ‘Social Butterfly’, which also deal with mental health (and await their official release), were in the semi-finals of the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

In 2019, I applied to the MA Songwriting programme at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) in London, where I auditioned with these two songs and was admitted to the programme on the very same day. Unfortunately, although the programme would enable me to record my original album about mental health in English and cooperate with British musicians, I could not accept my place there because I wasn’t able to receive a scholarship to cover the course fee and living costs in London.

But don’t worry, I continue to work on bringing you my mental health album, I have just chosen a somewhat different path to it.  ;)

THE DETERMINING STUDENT YEAR 2016

Already during my university years, I started to focus on promoting well‑being and mental health by travelling the world, writing and presenting scientific papers as well as original songs and poems on the given topic. In March 2016, I was one of the winners of the International Poetry Competition ‘Castello di Duino’ in Trieste, Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB9yahxSP8I , 1:48-2:21), representing Croatia with my poem ‘Coloring sepia’ “Coloring sepia” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUkTPqiSRyY , 1:08:18-1:16:32).

The poem talks about the need to accept all parts of yourself in order to build a healthy whole identity during adolescence and about different types of healing that we go through on our path to achieve it. How close this topic is to my heart can be also seen in the fact that my new original song, releasing soon, at the beginning of 2024, on all digital music platforms, talks about something similar and further highlights the importance of an authentic connection to ourselves, both for the sake of health and wellbeing of our environment. Follow this site and my Instagram profile for more information because the new song is coming soon! ! ;)

My poem ‘Coloring sepia’ was also published in a poetry collection and translated into Italian, as well as exhibited alongside my visual art (artistic photography) during the already mentioned poetry gathering in Italy. The same year saw me receive an award of the Croatology Students Association ‘Cassius’ for my poem ‘Mašta u magli’ (Imagination within the Fog), which touches on the importance of imagination and ideas but warns that it is important to clearly separate it from reality and from what is.