Mental health clients display art and struggles at Expressions of Recovery show in Mentor

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Alicia Moreland is proud to put both her artwork and her psychiatric condition on display.

Moreland has contributed one of more than 150 artworks that will be displayed throughout May in the 26th annual Expressions of Recovery show at the Great Lakes Mall. The show will be staged by the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board and feature art by clients of local treatment programs.

Moreland, 31, of Willoughby, who has bipolar disorder, hopes the show will help viewers understand mental illness. "It's not some person running around yelling about tinfoil hats and alien abductions. It's just something I have, like someone would have diabetes. It's not my fault."

She also wants to promote art therapy, which is part of her treatment. "Art therapy helps people understand their illness."

Moreland grew up in Bainbridge, graduated from Kenston High and began to study art at Miami University in Oxford. Then her mother became terminally ill.

The daughter started zigzagging between mania and depression. Sometimes she'd paint all night. Sometimes she'd lie in bed all day. She'd rip up her paintings. She'd go days without showering or changing. In the past 18 months, she was hospitalized nine times.

She says she moved to Willoughby to use the county's excellent mental health services. She lives alone on disability payments in an apartment. She gets art therapy, prescriptions and other treatment from Signature Health nearby.

A few weeks ago, her prescriptions were adjusted. She says she's feeling much stabler now and can see the change in her canvases. Her colors and shapes used to clash. Now they're more blended.

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