There is a strong chance that at least one point this year, you were intrigued and, very possibly, confused by the decked out lockers in the second floor science wing. Those decked out lockers were actually one of the AT Art classes’ projects.

The students were assigned to fill a locker with both 2D and 3D elements, while conveying a specific theme of their choice. The lockers’ themes vary greatly from everyday life, to more personal matters like anxiety, and depression. Maura “Mo” Dooley ’15 is an AT Art student, and also one of the fifteen incoming freshmen students selected to attend UCLA’s Film and Television program next fall. Her locker, titled “Psychotrauma, I Will be Okay,” tells a more personal story, inspired by mental illness. Dooley explains how a main aspect of her life is dealing with her own PTSD and making sure she helps others who struggle from similar illnesses.

The locker, filled with many detailed sketches on post-its, depicts her apprehensions concerning her future, and the tough times she was going through during the time of the assignment. “The main idea of my locker was the uncertainty I felt towards the passions I was pursuing—namely art and animation. I had a little bit of a crisis and realized I wanted to study film as a whole rather than just animation production, and this evolution was something I wanted to study,” said Dooley. Using post-its, fine point ink pens, and rubber cement, which she happens to be allergic to.  Dooley managed to creatively represent  personal struggle. The locker represents almost a storyboard of events, with individual sketches in numerical order forming a specific scene. Her piece also has a large pile of crumpled post-its at the bottom, showing the ups and downs of Dooley’s creative process. “I want people to know that I don’t think there’s any way I could have bared myself more in this project. At the time, I had lost passion for the thing I was most passionate about, and had a mental health crisis. I want people to realize the reality of mental illness. I wanted people to realize it is not as bizarre, fantastical, or rare as it seems,” said dooley. Dooley claims that her locker was a labor of equal parts, love and hate. She states to have hated the assignment while working on it, but felt extremely relieved once it was completed. The public display of her work was a successful way of helping her air her grievances, and as she expressed, “return to the normal state of wonder and happiness I exist in.” The theme of mental illness remains a huge part of Dooley’s life, and helping others manage their problems is greatly important to her. She was extremely open in sharing her personal struggles through her work, in an attempt to comfort those who suffer similar issues to her. Although the project may have been tedious, Dooley hopes that her final result will serve as an aid to those who have similar struggles to her. “If one person was made more comfortable or made to realize they aren’t some sort of a freak because my project showed them they aren’t alone, I’d consider it a massive success,” stated Dooley.

By Emma Satin