Your Creative Way

Art

Art and Healing

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The other day I was on my way to meet a friend for dinner. I had a few extra moments and decided to stop at a used bookstore I’d been wanting to visit. The ART section was right up front. I was in my zone, contentedly browsing for artists or titles I’m currently interested in when my eyes landed on a book called Art and Healing by Barbara Ganim.

As dinnertime was near, I quickly purchased the book and went on to meet my friend. When I returned home, I sat down to read and quickly felt my heart begin to beat more rapidly. Here was my experience with the Anger canvas all laid out as a process. But what really got my attention is the author’s declaration that WOMEN ARE ANGRY and we are still holding it all inside.

She goes on to describe the many negative effects that this has on our life, our relationships and our health. Holding anger inside can literally make us sick. And using art as a way to express not only anger but also the complex layers of our inner worlds is an extremely powerful tool for healing. And for revealing.

Even though none of this was real news to me, I had one of those life-changing moments where I felt my whole world open up: all the pieces, all the answers coming together into one cohesive picture: art and images are powerful tools for transformation and healing.

The Series Begins…

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As soon as I returned to Palm Springs, an old desire surfaced: to paint the desert hotels and houses that were etched in my mind growing up. At the time, I didn’t realize that they were part of the mid-century modernism design movement. To me, they were just the buildings I grew up around.

So now that I got that big anger expressed, and some big mountain energy going, I’m settling in to work on this series.

I took a number of photographs of Miracle Manor Retreat, a renovated mid-century modern boutique spa in Desert Hot Springs. Key to the work would be the neon sign that graces the top of the entrance. How to depict that accurately? After trying on my own to replicate the sign, I resorted to technology.

Using a process called image transfer, I was able to get the look I was after. Then, I began blocking in the larger shapes. Next, I’ll refine the details and add ‘the glow’. My new desert series is in progress!

Seeing Red

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The Anger Canvas unleashed a whole lotta emotion that had been pent up inside for WAY too long. Each time my brush touched the canvas, I let more and more go. It felt so good that I went on to another canvas. Rather than the extreme emotion of the first, this seemed to be more a dance of anger. There was a rhythm and balance to it all. Just getting it out was the important thing. Not worrying about anything but pure uncensored expression.

Whew. Huge deep breathe. NOW I can paint. The release triggered a breakthrough whereupon I am feeling the floodgates opening. I am struck by the similarity in gesture this painting has with my weavings. There is a constant thread running through our lives if we but stop to observe.

Here is an under-painting of my beloved mountain. Nothing like a solid foundational landmass speaking of strength and beauty to get me started again. The landscape in the south of France is decidedly feminine. That’s mostly why I felt so at home there. And though my mountain here is rugged, I feel her emanating a strong feminine energy as well.

This weekend in the high desert was the ShaktiFest: A Celebration of the Divine Mother. Though I was not able to go, I pursued the website with interest. Another flood of emotion washed through me: memories of my time in India where the divine feminine has been honored and respected for centuries. And suddenly it all came together for me. Again I ask, how did I stray so far away from my path? It was there all along, the underlying currents that make up my life. And I chose to ignore them…until now.

In this painting done many years ago, I capture the notion of surrender. And that is where I am again. Surrendering to what is before me, what is here now, what I’ve come here to be and do.

I surrender to truth, beauty, freedom and love. I surrender to it all so that I may naturally and completely embrace my own divine life.

Welcome

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Shifts and changes have occurred over the past year that have lead me back to painting. After a few years hiatus, exploring other loves and passions, I’m returning to my roots. My earlier weavings led to painting which led to explorations of creativity itself. I wanted to apply what I learned as an artist to my life, to make my life a work of beauty and art, to live divinely inspired and to create what I came here to create. And for that, I must return to painting.