Dale Marshall, Beauty is Always With You (2013)

• Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry

Fig.1 Dale Marshall, Beauty is Always With You (2013). © The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

By embracing his past, Dale Marshall creates raw, powerful works that are open and honest about his mental health and convey his story and struggles to the viewer. He hopes to use his works to start a frank and authentic discussion about mental health.

This striking and colourful work by British artist Dale Marshall is a study in colour and texture. The artist used a variety of different mediums, including oil stick, string, and paint to create a highly textural and bold work. Marshall began as a street artist. While he no longer creates art on the streets, his work pays homage to his background as he creates on canvas images of old-looking walls which are layered with graffiti.

Beauty is Always With You was featured in the 2014 exhibition ‘Walls with Wounds’ at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. The exhibition title recalls his graffiti and street art origins, while also referring to his current studio - a former Victorian workhouse which still has inscriptions on the walls created by children over 100 years ago. ‘Walls with Wounds’ also acknowledges his time spent at St Lawrence’s Hospital in Cornwall where he was sectioned in 1999 and received treatment for clinical depression.

Dale Marshall has been open about his history of mental illness and drug abuse which triggered psychotic episodes. He views his work as biographical as he documents his journey from poor mental health to good mental health. His work provides ‘the viewer a window to his soul and tormented past’. Through his work, Marshall aims to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health.