Empty Spaces, Growing Roots, and Unfinished Collages – Part 1

“How do you turn emotions into something you can hold in your hands?”

That question stayed with me as I attended three workshops during Mental Health Art Week 2026, organized in English by MIELI Without Borders. Each workshop approached mental wellbeing differently, through thread, drawing, movement, and creative expression. What surprised me most was not the art we created, but the conversations, emotions, and reflections that emerged along the way.

The Loom of Belonging:
A Journey Through Motif & Thread

A mental health art week workshop by Gizem Zara Aktas

 

The room was filled with colourful threads, crochet hooks, markers, and sheets of paper covered in symbols. Before creating anything ourselves, we were introduced to traditional Anatolian carpet motifs and the stories they carry. Some symbols represented protection, others love, strength, belonging, or hope. These weren’t simply decorations. They were visual languages for emotions that people had been expressing for generations.

As participants reflected on their own lives through mindfulness exercises and storytelling, they began creating their own symbols and patterns.

For me, the workshop became an exercise in exploration.

I arrived curious about crochet and wanted to learn the basics. However, trying to understand a completely new skill while also exploring unfamiliar symbols felt overwhelming. Instead of forcing myself to master crochet, I found myself gravitating toward something more familiar: patterns.

I picked up a graph sheet and began sketching motifs.

What fascinated me was the idea that entire stories could be communicated through symbols. As I studied the motifs, I found myself drawn to several of them. Around the edges of my page, I recreated the running water motif. Traditionally, it symbolizes the flow and continuity of life.

Looking back, it feels fitting. Much of my own journey over the past few years has involved movement, adaptation, and learning to navigate unfamiliar environments while continuing forward.

Near the centre of the page, I explored motifs inspired by the eye and ram’s horn symbols. The eye is often associated with awareness and protection, while the ram’s horn represents strength and resilience. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I was drawn to symbols that reflected qualities I have relied on throughout my own journey.

What emerged in the middle of the page was something that felt more personal. I combined familiar motifs with my own interpretation, creating a symbol surrounded by radiating lines and arrows pointing both upward and downward. Looking at it now, it reminds me of exchange and reciprocity. Belonging has never felt like a one-way process to me. It involves both receiving and contributing, learning from others while also sharing parts of yourself.