I am Nehir Uslu, a Chicago-based Turkey-born and raised artist, illustrator, and mental health advocate completing my BFA in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My practice lives at the intersection of art, care, and advocacy; I create soft, tactile objects and illustrations that function as vessels – spaces where feelings can be held, explored, and made sense of with gentleness and care.

Through fiber, weaving, soft sculpture, and illustrating, I research how texture, materiality, and sensory experience can support psychological healing, emotional regulation, and safety. I am interested in how touch, play, and repetition can foster comfort, safety, and belonging, especially for people carrying pain, trauma, and emotional distress. My work invites interaction rather than observation; it asks participants to slow down, to feel, and to return to their bodies. It offers art as something to be held, returned to, and relied upon in moments of vulnerability. These objects are not meant to fix or resolve, but to accompany, to sit with someone in the moments when words are unavailable.

My illustration practice reframes dominant narratives about mental health by advocating for visibility of care, healing, and understanding beyond moments of crisis. Through my platform @itsoktofeelthatway, I share illustrated mental health resources that meet people in their everyday lives, on water bottles, notebooks, phones, and computers, integrating care into spaces people already inhabit. I believe that support should be preventative, accessible, and woven into daily life, not reserved only for moments of emergency.

My works are inseparable from my experiences providing direct services to individuals through crisis advocacy and support. Working alongside individuals navigating fear, loss, and resilience has shown me how often professional resources are not available when they are most needed. In response, my art emphasizes self-help, self-soothing, and emotional grounding, not as substitutes for social services but as critical tools that empower individuals to cope, survive, and reclaim agency in the absence of immediate support.

As an aspiring social worker preparing for graduate education, I understand art as a complementary practice to my clinical and community-based work. I see creative expression as a non-verbal language that can lower barriers to help-seeking, especially for individuals who feel unheard. My longer term goal is to integrate art-based interventions into social work and mental health settings, using creative processes to foster trust, promote healing.

At its core, my practice is about creating safe spaces, visual, tactile, and emotional, where vulnerability is not a weakness but a form of truth. I explore how art can function as a quiet home: a place where people feel seen, believed, and allowed to rest.