Melanie McCormack

Changing Ideas Award
"Bottled Up" is a self-portrait of a woman enduring menopause, reflecting on a life shaped by what has been learned, inherited, and slowly unpacked. It addresses systemic issues including multi-generational trauma, the silencing and normalisation of distress, cultural coping norms, and the invisibility of women’s mental health.
The figure sits composed yet exposed, meeting the audience directly while holding both controlled, and contained conflict. The drink in her hand suggests both choice and conditioning, shaped by a lifetime of experience carried within.
Beneath her, the painted surface reveals a fragmented internal world—layered emotional memory, shifting identities, and unresolved turmoil. In contrast to her composed exterior, this inner landscape remains fluid, destructive yet alive. The table-top stain reflects the remnants of scars.
Each bottle represents a different emotional state: fear, guilt, humour, shame, regret, grief, and vulnerability—held, suppressed, or made socially acceptable. The labels, rooted in Scottish language and identity, represent a culture where distress is often masked through humour and minimised through ritual.
In this painting, mental health is shaped by the interactions between biology, environment, and lived experience. The recurring bottles reflect patterns of coping shaped by distress, often inherited and adapted over time. The act of holding symbolises how many people move through the world bearing more than they can safely express.
As a Scottish woman, this work acknowledges cultural narratives around resilience, drinking, emotional restraint, and what becomes an acquired taste. Following an extended period of writing into these experiences, the work marks a shift from language into image—an externalised lens for what words could not fully contain, suppression to expression!
The portrait offers a quiet, non-judgemental gaze that invites reflection, encouraging kindness toward the parts of ourselves that carry shame and courage to seek support, reminding the audience that they are not alone.