Meet Aileen, an artist and writer
My priority is to create a space where young people can feel seen, understood, and heard through the medium of expressive art in all of its forms. In integrating art, poetry, and psychology, I want to remove the stigma around mental health and build a stronger awareness of our emotions amongst human beings. In whatever form it is expressed, as a painting, or a poem or a dialogue, my goal is to promote connection, awareness, and healing—one canvas at a time.
Me! -->
Gallery
The Bear
By: Aileen Cho
A bear is eating me alive
Its big,
Its heavy,
Its ravenous,
Ravenous for my laziness
He sits on top of me and holds me down into bed
It feels so nice though I know it's not right
I’ve been tricked many times and it's never good to let the bear stay the night
It's a lifelong chase of hide and seek
And it always knows where I’m weak
Bit off an arm,
Then a leg,
Sometimes a finger,
Hes dangerous, you must never let him linger
Tempted? I know
He might be cute
But he is not afraid to eat you barbecued
Headspace
By: Aileen Cho
I live in a mansion that seems to have infinite rooms
And I’m the cleaner
I’ve seen rooms bright and open
They're filled with dreams and laughter
While others seem to be locked, dusty, or of clutter
The system keeps rotating
When I clean one, another falls into disrepair
To have visitors come and go as they please
Joy, anxiety, grief
I try to keep things brief
But as I stay to clean
It's never a relief
I’ve been cleaning for years now
Decades, maybe more
And I’ve grown to learn to repaint, rearrange, and rebuild my space
Though I’m unsure if I’ll ever have a break
This is who I am
This is my embrace
Presence
By: Aileen Cho
It lives in the pause between thought and breath,
Not joy, not grief
just something left.
Like déjà vu with no past behind,
A whisper lodged inside the mind.
Too sharp for peace, too soft for pain
A ghost I feel but can't explain.
Soundtrack of the Soul
By: Aileen Cho
It starts off with silence
Then slowly like a half pressed piano key
A hum beneath thought
It frees itself and becomes apart of me
There would be rain
But not the stormy kind
As its more still
Then with the mind intertwined
Gets just steady enough
To remind me I’m still here in the rough
Then in the background
A voice maybe mine
Not singing just breathing
More like a soul still clinging
But only though the pauses between notes
Acting as a lifeboat
Sometimes once in awhile
A crescendo
Balanced with the beat of my heart
It welcomes me like an archway
And that's when I think to myself
“I want to stay”
Letter to Me
By: Aileen Cho
When the world forgets to be kind
I hope you search for small wonders
The lipstick stain on your coffee cup
That gold on the edge of good mornings
I hope you forgive
For the versions of you that existed
The one who tried way too hard to fit in
The one who always second-guessed
Remember you built peace once
Out of sheer will and effort
You can build again
Your future is waiting on you
And if you forget how to rest
Close your eyes, I’m still here
Writing this for you
We will make it through another year
Borderline
By: Aileen Cho
Light will never replace the dark
It only shows how to articulate it
I am both:
the burst of laughter
and the still pain after
The room half-lit
Thereinafter
Some days, I am the glimmer
Shining on everything watching it shimmer
On others, the shade
that protects hurting
doesn't dare be afraid
But always,
I’m where the two meet
The in-between where no one competes
Softening the shadow
The dark learning how to follow
How I Cope
As an artist, when things feels heavy I reach for my craft of creating - drawing, writing, even just putting my thoughts down in a journal. I create in order to untangle my feelings without having to define them. I may go quiet, I may cry, giving my emotions extrinsic space to live keeps me anchored. It's not always beautiful, but it's mine.
What Therapy Taught Me
I learned in therapy that feelings are not necessarily facts, and healing is not linear. I learned it is okay to sit with emotions instead of trying to fix them right away. I learned that I do not have to earn my rest, and that I deserve to take up space even when I am not at my best. Most importantly, I learned that I’m not broken — I’m just human, and I’m learning.
The Art of Slowing Down
Slowing down doesn't mean to do less - it means to pay more attention. It is to make a choice to breathe before reacting. To rest with no guilt. To slow down and realize that some of the quietest moments in your life can produce the most calm. In a world that speeds up everything we do, slowing down feels defiant. But it is also where I feel the most alive, the most present, and the most peaceful.
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How I cope
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
Talk to me!
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