On mental health, art and Japan: an interview with Hope Anderson

A passionate advocate for self-care and mental health, an inspiring artist and a lover of Japanese culture, Hope Anderson can teach everyone a lot about living a fulfilling life.

As a UNL alumni and staff, there are at least a thousand different Huskers I could have chosen to write this feature on. But I find that we often don’t know enough about the story of those we interact with the most, such as our coworkers. Today, I want to introduce you to my friend and coworker, Hope Anderson.

The first time I heard of Hope was from my director, when she explained that one of my office’s student workers was interning in Japan and how excited she was to have her return in January because, quite simply, she was great. My first thoughts were excited exclamations in Japanese (having just returned from teaching in Japan myself on the JET Program) and wondering if we could geek out together over a mutual love of Japanese food, Daiso dollar stores and their superior stationery. The short answer? YES. But in the last seven months I’ve spent working with Hope, I’ve found a friendship that goes beyond that.

On Mental Health and Illnesses

Hope (and I hope she forgives me for this cliché) gives me a sense of hope.

When I asked her what story she wanted to tell, she responded with one as a student battling and overcoming mental illnesses. In the last few years, as mental health has become less stigmatized to talk about, I’ve had many friends open up about their experience with anxiety and depression. But what sticks out to me about Hope is how open she was with me in telling her story, how positive she is despite the challenges and difficult emotions she’s had to overcome, and how passionate she is to communicate with others that they are not alone.

“I think there’s definitely a conversation about mental health that is being accepted. But there’s a huge learning curve involved. I think that the younger generations, like Millennials and Gen Z, are expressing themselves and drawing attention to mental health and awareness just because the suicide rate has gone up so much,” Hope told me. “But I would like to see more attention to students who are struggling at a younger age. I’ve lost friends to suicide at a young age and it really impacted me in wanting to make a difference.”

To me, Hope embodies the spirit of Husker grit. Despite battling her multiple challenges—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, autoimmune disorder (fibromyalgia)—she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Art History and now works as a Program Assistant in my office. But, as she explained to me, the journey wasn’t always easy.

“There was definitely a time when I thought that I should just drop out because I didn’t think I was capable of going to school,” Hope confessed to me. “But being able to sign up at the Services for Students with Disabilities office, being able to take 9 credit hours and be considered fulltime for scholarships, to reach out to CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services)—the resources were amazing.”

I don’t know about you, but when I get news that I don’t like or I have to ask for help on something that embarrasses me (even when it shouldn’t), I hate it. I’m a prideful person whose self-sufficiency is very much tied to my self-identity. I wondered if Hope faced a similar challenge in her personal journey?

The answer is an emphatic yes.

“Hearing it, accepting it and actually doing it are all very different things. It’s definitely a journey. Sometimes medication is not the answer; some people prefer to do kind of a natural therapy instead, which is just as good as any other approach as long as you’re trying to take care of yourself,” Hope explained to me.

“For me, just swallowing my pride and going in, asking for help, really benefited me. I struggled with that idea for a very long time because I’ll have to take medication for the rest of my life. That was a hard thing for me to come to terms with, but now that I’ve accepted that it works and it keeps me stable, I don’t have that issue anymore.”

“Understanding how all of my disorders coexist with each other was based in a lot of shame and embarrassment at first. But after I spent some time contemplating and thinking about it, I was able to come to terms with everything and learn how to advocate for myself, take care of myself.”

Yoga and stretching in the morning, and actively trying to cut down on caffeine and junk food are just some of the small self-care practices that Hope regularly practices. Although she acknowledges that she’s not always successful in resisting the junk food (who is?), she tries to at least recognize to herself that her intention should be to eat a salad or other healthy foods. Hope also tries to stay physically active and exercise, despite the challenge her mobility issues may present. For her, it’s also the intentionality of certain activities and meditative state of mind, like folding paper cranes.

But above all, self-care for Hope is finding something that brings her joy.

I’ll be honest and admit that I’m still learning how to accept and practice self-care as a regular routine, and Hope’s advice will undoubtedly be extremely valuable for me going forward. But the other thing I struggle with in the realm of mental health is how to support friends or family members who are battling these challenges. Thankfully, I have Hope to help me with that as well.

“You can’t force them to do anything, but letting them know that if they feel as though they can and want to, that you’re there as an ear, as a person to distract them, as a person to encourage them.”

On Art

One of the other first things about Hope that my director shared with me was her great skill as a photographer. I was thrilled to hear this, not only as the communications director for my office who is always hunting for quality photos, but also as someone who considers photography as a small hobby (thank you, Instagram).

Hope inspires me as a photographer because she uses it in part as a vehicle to overcome her mental illnesses. She is a passionate advocate of art therapy, about letting oneself feel all the emotions and channel it towards something better.

Hope is also a good deal more skilled than me at photography. But it’s not so surprising, considering it’s been a passion of hers for more than a decade.

“There’s a photo of me, I think I’m about six or seven years old, and I’m a holding a disposable camera,” Hope told me “Since my parents are both artists—my dad is a printmaker, my mom is an illustrator—that creative expression has been encouraged my entire life. Actually, I got my first professional-grade camera at 12 years old.”

With all the things in the world to capture, Hope tells me that her favorite is capturing candid moments, especially those at weddings. Between all of the happy emotions of the wedding party and guests, as well as capturing the moments that show the relationship not only between the couple and their family, but also with their faith, it’s the honesty behind those moments that drives her to capture them. It’s this same honesty that she strives to maintain in her personal photography, such as the self-portraiture series she did on bipolar disorder (see first image).

Hope and I share photography as one of our favorite forms of art. Photography and art are also some of her favorite things. And one of my favorite things is asking why or what that favorite thing means to someone else.

To Hope, “Art is freedom. Art is liberation. The freedom of expression and being able to voice your viewpoint freely. I think that is amazing and wonderful and beautiful.”

I completely agree, Hope.

In her work, Hope looks at it as a form of visual storytelling, and is often influenced by her favorite artists such as Vincent van Gogh. In fact, it was van Gogh who inspired the above-pictured self-portrait series. He was an artist who took the pain associated with his own bipolar disorder and turned it into something beautiful and positive. In the same manner van Gogh used attention to detail and how humans interact with color for his paintings, Hope is inspired to use color in her art to evoke emotions.

“In my artwork, I’m trying to relay to other people that just because I am a person who has mental illness, it does not limit my creativity. I use it as fuel in my fire, not as something that limits myself.”

Although her major upon entering UNL was originally Art, Hope switched to Art History (and is a very passionate supporter of the field) after taking a class and falling in love with it. The classes came naturally to her, not only because both of her parents are artists, but also because her mother would have Hope quiz her on art history as she was going through art school. And so she became Hope Anderson, 10-year-old da Vinci expert.

“I think that art history is very multi-faceted because ancient art is associated with archaeology and anthropology, and the history of humans before written word. As we get further into modern art, we get into religion and how that was impacted by social norms. Further down the line, it’s very much related to psychology and propaganda… it’s very much tied to so many other fields, which I think is very interesting and worth studying.”

One of the best, most fascinating, yet mind-bending concepts to me is that history is always being made. This appears to interest Hope as well, since despite the fact her undergraduate major focused on art history, she’s still fascinated by modern art history, especially Neo-Dadaism.

What, you might ask, is Neo-Dadaism? The study of memes. Yup, you read that right: some people consider the meme culture an artistic movement.

As I tried to wrap my head around that one, Hope explained to me that Dadaism arose in the early 1900’s, based on making sarcastic jokes towards the art world and how serious people were. One famous example she gave me was Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”, a urinal put on a pedestal and declared art. Although some may argue that memes are not technically a part of Neo-Dadaism that began in the post-World War II era (read this editorial in The Michigan Daily newspaper for thoughts), the goal of evoking a reaction is certainly achieved by memes. But if we judge by Hope’s definition of art, memes certainly are an art form, an albeit “ridiculous and amazing” one that she uses often instead of words to have an image explain her reaction.

“I love the study of human expression. I think that’s the most interesting thing because the development of artistic styles and capabilities has such a rich history that it tells the story of humanity in a way, which I’m absolutely fascinated by.”

On Japan

Although all art is interesting to Hope, her favorite art to study is Japanese. In fact, she completed her art history degree with a specialization in Japanese art, a topic she is very passionate about reminding people in the art history world.

“Art history is so focused on European and American artists, it makes me so mad! There’s so much rich and beautiful history coming out of Asia and Africa especially, but these are the two areas that get forgotten,” Hope said to me. “These different cultures were such an inspiration for so many different artists, like van Gogh actually did copies of Japanese wood-block prints, like Degas and so many Impressionist artists that were directly inspired by prints that were brought back.”

As alluded to before, I’m also one of those people who are fascinated by Japanese culture and the language, which might seem surprising for a Nebraska native. For me, it was a book at the library; but for Hope, it was anime and a movie that inspired her to learn more about Japan. 

“I grew up with six male cousins and we were very close, so I watched a lot of Dragon Ball Z when I was very young. Then in the early 2000’s when Spirited Away came out, I would go to Blockbuster and rent that movie every weekend. I would watch it because I was like, ‘This is absolutely amazing, I want to know more, I want to learn more. It’s so foreign, it’s so different from the life I’m used to.’ It just kind of grew from there, that curiosity, and it never stopped.”

In addition to Spirited Away, Hope loves to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service because it reminds her to look into her heart and find what drives her in life.

From self-studying the language to four years in high school and continuing in college, it was a dream come true for Hope to teach English in Japan through the UNL-Senshu Matsudo internship program. (And it’s been a dream come true for me to work with someone who’s lived and taught in Japan so we can reminiscence together!)

Hope finds the development of Japanese art incredibly interesting, fascinated by its origin in Confucianism and ink paintings from China through its morphine into something different after artists started looking to their own country’s aesthetics.

“I was living in a city full of so much history. I was able to casually see relics of ancient art both in Kyoto and Tokyo. I want to Ueno a lot, I went to every museum at least once. It was so emotional!”

What I’ve Learned from Hope

Spending an hour with Hope and asking her about her life story is not nearly enough time to glean all her wisdom (just as it isn’t for anyone else). But at the end of my interview (which I’ll call an interview instead of a conversation between friends since it was for this project), I’m struck by the following three lessons from Hope:

1. Self-care and mental health are never something to be embarrassed about. Take care of your whole self.
2. Art is not about being “good”; it’s about feeling all of your emotions and expressing yourself.
3. Learn about the world, and don’t forget to question what you’re learning and what might be missing out.

Thank you, Hope, for sharing your story with me. I think you will indeed be an inspiration to others on self-care, self-advocacy, and staying curious about the world around us.

If you are interested in supporting mental health education and advocacy, especially for young people, feel free to check out one of Hope’s favorite nonprofit organizations, To Write Love on Her Arms.

If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States at: 1 (800) 273-8255.