Mickayel Thurin

The Panic Attack

Tufted yarn, embroidery, fabric, acrylic paint

"This is a depiction of how it feels to have a panic attack. At one point in 2020 and even into 2021 I was having upwards of five panic attacks a day.

Since I'm a believer in painting what is familiar and what I know, I painted the experience of panic attacks. I also think it's important for me to work towards removing the stigma associated with mental health, therapy, and all that so that people feel comfortable getting assistance with their emotional health or help to work through past traumatic experiences.

I used tufting (a method of rug making), gold leaf, acrylic paint, fabric, and embroidery to create this image. The fabric also has cultural significance to me and is sourced from old clothes that I have a sentimental attachment to. This was important since a lot of my trauma is generational and informed by my culture."

– Mickayel Thurin

About the artist

Mickayel Thurin

Mickayel (Micka) Thurin is a Haitian/African American artist who grew up in New York, Virginia, and Michigan. She attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia where she studied painting. Micka runs a nonprofit, Seen Heard Connected (SHC), which started in February of 2021 which interviews marginalized individuals, paints their portraits, and creates time-lapses of the painting process overlaid with the interview audio. These are then shared on SHC's social media as a way to increase awareness and compassion for others' experiences. SHC also provides honorariums and donations to the sitters, the organizations, and programs that support them. Micka has a Masters in HR and Employment Relations from Penn State, her BFA from UPENN, and a 4-year certificate from PAFA. She is also a mom, wife and works a separate full-time HR job in addition to being SHC's Executive Director and being an independent artist.

Micka's paintings are a homage to her mental health journey as well as an exploration into where her consciousness fits within the universe, space and time. They play within the realms of trauma, culture, social injustice, the human experience, spirituality, mindfulness, and self-love. They are vulnerable, honest self-reflection that others may relate to and see themselves in. The works are figurative and mixed media, incorporating acrylic paint, inks, tufted yarn, embroidery, typography, glitter, collage, and beadwork. There is also usually a fabric element, sourced from old clothes that hold sentimental value.