Yohei – laughing in the face of depression Painting

This introspective portrait of Yohei Suzuki, was created using “pokerwork”, a hand drawn pyrographic technique to burn the subject’s likeness into the plywood, breaking the portrait down into a collection of tones and individual burn marks. Trost selects his subjects from people whose inner strength has given them resiliency in the face of mental health challenges. He hopes that by highlighting people actively working through depression, his art will help to correct misconceptions about this debilitating illness. Yohei exuded positivity, he was always the life of the party. Little did the outside world know of his inner turmoil and his fight with depression. On the last day of the school year, Yohei a teacher, was driving to work and tragically crashed into a stationary truck, killing him instantly. He had only been diagnosed with depression a fortnight earlier. Yohei laughed a lot. His personality hid his true emotion and speaks volumes about the human social condition. Where true feelings can’t be expressed as they are seen as inappropriate or weak. Trost’s work challenges us to question better and not accept “I’m OK” as an adequate answer to mental health.