Artist Feature: Emily Tull – 1st Prize Winner, 2025 Art As A Response to Mental Health

Title: As If She Were A Ghost In Her Own LifeArtist: Emily TullLocation: Ramsgate, UK

In her award-winning self-portrait As If She Were A Ghost In Her Own Life, Emily Tull captures the quiet unraveling of identity during a period of intense personal struggle. The stitched portrait,raw, fragmented, and hauntingly expressive,was created at a time when Emily’s mental health was under significant strain, and her OCD had powerfully resurfaced.

Using thread and fabric as her medium, Emily invites viewers into a deeply vulnerable moment,where the self feels absent, blurred, and ghost-like. The work's minimal yet precise lines evoke the disorientation and invisibility often experienced by those living with mental illness. Her use of negative space reinforces the sense of fading presence, as if the figure is dissolving into the fabric of daily life.

Emily Tull’s piece stood out not only for its craftsmanship and subtlety but for the honesty it carries,reflecting the realities of mental health with rare clarity. Judges praised the work for its emotional depth and technical refinement, calling it "a poetic and poignant portrayal of internal struggle."

This powerful artwork reminds us that even in our most hidden battles, expression can be a lifeline,and that art, in its purest form, holds space for both pain and healing.