I am Clarisse Casalino, a registered psychiatric nurse, a published writer, and an artist living in Chicago, IL. I graduated from New York University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a minor in studio art. As a psychiatric nurse and a previous psychiatric patient, I find myself in a particularly fantastic position to show the sane insanity. I can be summed up by the Shakespearean quote, “Dispute not with her,—she is lunatic." With each piece, I strive to shed light on the profound and often misunderstood emotions that shape the inner worlds of those suffering from mental illness. In the chosen medium of collage, I aim to offer a space to challenge our perceptions and encourage us to question our assumptions about those we deem “crazy.” My work implies intimacies gone awry, longing, and often an intense misreading of the human experience. There is an underlying interest in healing. The pieces foreshadow an uneasy thought that each of us face at some juncture in our lives that the self-inflicted pain is perhaps the most lethal malady of all.