Just browsing through the entries into the “Shattered Self” contest on dA, and... ugh. Okay, fellow artists:
The following themes and motifs used to illustrate Dissociative Identity Disorder are not new, original, interesting, accurate, or useful. They have been done and overdone, and don’t generally represent the experiences of multiples.
Someone’s reflection in a shattered mirror, with each shard reflecting a different face.
A whole bunch of arms coming out of somebody, usually violently.
A whole bunch of shadowy figures standing around being ominous.
A distorted body with a bunch of arms, legs, torsos, heads, etc., all of which are struggling to rip themselves away from the others.
Stuff that looks like horror movie posters, in general.
Images of faces/bodies broken like dropped porcelain or glass.
Dopplegangers of the body sitting around like Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” video, having identical faces with different expressions and clothes.
Someone carrying a selection of masks, usually with the exact same face but different facial expressions.
Images of people with DID killing other people.
To me, using any of the above tropes indicates that you didn’t do your homework and don’t really know your subject matter, other than using someone else’s life experience for cheap drama. Do your homework or go and paint something else. Let the people who live the experience depict themselves.
