Breakdown of a Piece: Untethered

When people see this drawing, they are usually taken by a sense of nostalgia. To my delight, many seniors really like this style of art because it reminds them of the old Disney style. Or Betty Boop or Felix the Cat. The style is called Rubberhose and it became popular in the 1930s.

But Untethered means so much more to me than old school cartoons. There is a dark message behind the silliness of the characters. Some on lookers can sense that.

In the winter of 2024 I began to experience dissociation, specifically derealisation. It is a sensation that you are detached from the world, that time is moving without you. I thought it was such a bizarre occurrence that I decided I needed to make a drawing. But how do you depict such an odd experience that you can barely explain it in words?

Luckily I was binging a lot of cartoons at the time. I would binge Rocko's Modern Life and loved the abstract and exaggerated storylines. I figured since cartoons always experience absurdness then using cartoons is the best way to depict the absurdness of dissociation.

First, I drew the character in the middle who represents me. I added a few details like the ponytail and bandana but I wanted her to be simple enough that anyone can relate to her. She is being tugged back by the Dooms Day Clock as it constantly felt like time was breathing down my neck. His evil eyes and her look of sheer terror specifies that he is the antagonist. She is holding a rope that has snapped apart and at the other end is the world, whipping around a tether pole to represent the uneasy feeling of being unattached to the world. The ants below the world are shaking their fists for having their game interrupted. This is a reference to a lyric by Queens of the Stone Age in My God is the Sun, "so good to be an ant that crawls a top a spinning rock." So, the ants are people seemingly living in a different reality from the main character.

Dissociation can be a terrifying occurrence. However I was lucky to have guidance to learn about it and keep it from worsening. I often get a lot of appreciation for being open on these topics and honestly, I think it's necessary to talk about because when you experience something like this and don't know what it is, it can be obviously very scary. I felt lonely in it and afraid to even talk about it as I felt the sting of the stigma. But as I became more confident and started to open up, I learned it is actually much more common than expected as someone people in my life have also gone through it. I wanted a piece that started that conversation so anyone who sees it and has experienced dissociation doesn't have to experience loneliness as well.