madison eich

Have you ever been in a toxic relationship or friendship? A relationship where it’s so dysfunctional that it’s physically unhealthy to be in? Well, most of the time those relationships don't start out like that. They start with two people who make each other happy. But, somehow, throughout the relationship one or both of them evolve and start being someone that is toxic to the other person. The sad part about these relationships is that the people in them don’t know they’re toxic until the relationships end and they realize how far from the beginning they’ve strewn. Sometimes, these relationships can even change the who the individual is. The person is so drained of all their joy that they become a person they don’t recognize.

This is the concept I depict in my artwork to represent the work “happiness”. The color in the hands symbolize the happiness in each person. In the top half, the hands show the happiness in each person as they are separate and just beginning the journey together. But, on the bottom half, the color is being drained from one of the hands in order to symbolize the happiness being drained from one of the people. 

I gained inspiration for this picture by watching the people around me. I have heard my friends and members of my family tell me how happy their boyfriend/girlfriend makes them. But, in reality they don’t make them happy at all. Being in the relationship is draining them of so much joy that they forget what it’s like to be happy. The happiness is a facade that fools themselves into thinking they’re a healthy relationship.