Oh I Love That
A selection of Diary Drawings by Bobby Baker
“During the 11 years that I was caught up in the mental health system I made over 700 drawings in 62 sketchbooks. These drawings have been celebrated over time – following a major exhibition of digitised prints at Wellcome Collection in 2009, a book, now sold out, and extensive touring.
But I've had all the sketchbooks sitting in my studio in boxes ever since then. They're a great worry because only some of them have been digitised. It takes ages to wade through all the books, and I’ve always wanted to share the images more widely – to help change the way mental distress is understood and people are cared for – and to bring hope of survival, understanding and laughter into the arena.
So I was delighted to finally secure funding to digitise the entire collection.
My story is one of survival. I'm extremely lucky. Making these drawings and sharing them with people helped me hugely – to make sense of what had happened to me, to see injustice, trauma and abuse in plain sight – and to claim autonomy and independence.
I’ve tried to use them politically and contribute to the global campaign for change. But I was feeling the burden of that in selecting this collection of drawings for Outside In. ‘What can I do as an individual? How can I help right so much that is wrong?’
But then I noticed that when I looked at some drawings, every time I just say ‘Oh, I love that.’ So I chose these 17 drawings because every time I look at them, they make me think – ‘Oh I love that, I love drawing, it helped save my life’.” Bobby Baker