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Street Art: Mary Vallely’s aquatic paintings help her deal with depression

The Big Issue’s Street Art page gives talented, marginalised individuals an outlet for creative expression

‘Beneath The Surface’
By Mary Vallely

Mary’s colourful, aquatic paintings are her way of helping to deal with her depression and a history of homelessness. She has been working as an artist in London for more than 10 years, selling and exhibiting via Café Art and Crisis.

“My goal next year is to get a solo exhibition,” she says. Recently Mary has begun experimenting with a new craft. “I have started attending a knitting group at Recovery College,” she says.

“The process is more methodical and regimented than my painting, but the discipline seems to be influencing my approach to that, and maybe it is also changing as I get older. I want my work to be cleaner, perhaps due to periods of ill health. I want to get healthier, think healthier.”

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