Prescribing ADHA drugs is controversial and potentially harmful for a variety of reasons. The effects physically, mentally, emotionally and socially are all worth considering, yet as a society we often turn to drugs such as Ritalin as a way to control our kids and adolescents. Although I was extremely hyperactive as a teenager I was never diagnosed with ADHD or prescribed Ritalin, but my curiosity about the effects of these drugs remains. Essentially, I wonder whether I would be the person that I am today had I been taking Ritalin; would that drug have significantly changed my course in life?

RITALIN SELF PORTRAITS forces the viewer to decide what they believe the effects of ADHD drugs are and what a person would look like on or off them. These portraits cause a viewer to project their own ideas about these drugs, misconstrued or not, onto my own two week experience which transforms this autobiographical work into a type of mirror placing the viewer’s ideas as tantamount to my own.