Valentines Day 2012

Valentines Day isn't an easy Holiday for some people. The recent oil pastel below is from a workshop journal. It's a powerful visual examples of working through healing. The assignment focused on relationships. In this case, a once passionate, vibrant love has turned bad. The feeling are reflected in strong stokes and vivid colors. A whimsical love bloomed, but soon becomes a swirl of conflicting emotions. This student was absolutely sure they were "over" this relationship, but like many of us, we soon find out sometimes LOVE IS COMPLICATED!

Working through the healing process revealed that some very strong emotions were connected to these old memories. We've all heard that emotional ties (pleasant ones and hurtful ones) run deep, and many choose to believe if we bury them- they'll go away!

Art&healing, creates a safe environment for people to probe around inside their own soul. To remember and uncover what makes them smile, as well as identify a wound that needs healing. It's a fascinating process.

LOVE IS COMPLICATED

AN UNTOUCHABLE HEART

Here is another example. This participant was trying to make a heart connection, but felt shut out, or blocked. You can see an image of a shielded heart, or guarded, nothing is penetrating through (purple arrows blocked by pencil scribbles around the red heart in the center) It's also easy to spot the multiple tiny arrows reach out in all directions, trying to connect.

An art and healing workshop takes you through a step by step process. The students themselves evaluate their own work and how they felt through the process. It is not the job of a facilitator to attempt to diagnose, or analyze anyone. Because it is a process, their picture will look completely different as it develops. If we look at this same picture after step #3, all you would see is the big red heart in the middle with dark skinny lines (like a net) all around it. As we progressed through step#5 , a lot of color and energy emergerd from above (top left corner) They expressed this as "God's relentless attempts to love" even if attempts are continually rejected! This was a God moment for them, an unexpected revelation that was unveiled as they worked through each step!

The LORD appeared to him from afar saying I loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you to myself with lovingkindness. Jeremiah 31:3

Hear with your eyes?

Part of the healing process is helping people find their voice again. People express themselves in may ways... and not always with words!  I believe we'd do better to LISTEN more with our EYES and SEE with our EARS!  (no, this is not a "typing" mistake) Disappointment, fear and anxiety can cause a person to shut down and withdraw.We are designed to be relationship, to communicate, to participate, to love and be loved. Creating a safe environment to express feelings is essential for a healthy recovery.Here are a few examples of expressive art from a workshop session. Again, the goal is not perfection, but honest expression.

You don't have to be a clinical therapist  
to LISTEN with your EYES. Open your eyes and you'll hear...

Joyful

Depression

Trauma

Conflicted

Undecided

Peaceful

Worship

Security

"October Art"

Carving a pumpkin is messy and difficult for most kids, but painting one can be REALLY fun! Here are a few my nephews and I created while their parents were on a "date night".

Art4healing

Art4Healing techniques can be used in a variety of situation. Crisis, trauma and illness are only a few. This process can also be helpful for those in leadership roles, in team-building, working through emotional conflicts and communicating vision.

Coping with hardships

A group of Wounded Warriors at a Military Base sort through their emotions. They are learning to cope with life’s hardships and experience healing through art and creativity. Art4Healing is also used at a local shelter for battered women. They have incorporated expressive art into their curriculum. The women voice their struggles and fears by using the language of color. These same techniques are also being used to help children in after school programs.

Artistic Expression- working through healing

Each participant has a unique and powerful way of communicating. It's personal, it's part of their story and in Art4Healing they are empowered to share it!

Today “Feels” Pink and Circular?

As classes progressed, I found my paintings didn’t lie. What I could not communicate in words, what was frustrating, or unsafe to say or think was showing up on my canvas. Personal dreams and aspirations also began to show through. Colors, textures and shapes began to surface and tell my story. This was a fascinating process, very intuitive. Even now, I can’t explain why the word “calm” feels violet with soft wavy lines and “safe” feels pink and circular. Last week “painful” felt yellow and green with sharp, hard edges. Putting paint down on piece of paper was becoming deeply personal. I was using a new language to communicate, colors and shapes became my vocabulary. This wasn’t always comfortable or enjoyable, in fact I felt pretty vulnerable at first.

One very significant moment for me was when Laurie asked us to pick any two colors to express how we receive or experience love. My hesitant hands, blank canvass and long reflective pause spoke volumes. That was a painful but profound moment. It caught me off guard. I was challenged to consider emotions that had been carefully and purposely buried. Over the next few weeks I gave myself permission to revisit that class assignment while at home. I filled many pages in my art journal, until there was nothing else more to say, or paint. It was healing. As the weeks progressed, I experienced more and more freedom. Thankfully healing is the continuous process of forgiveness and growth..... and love is it’s inevitable fruit.

Petal by petal

Class Assignment- "My Journey from Darkness to Light

Collage -Using old magazines and a glue stick.

Our assignment; choose one color and create a collage depicting the transition of change in our personal life. I picked red. Using the one color theme, I created a progression of darker reds that moved from the center.... outward. I wanted to make a flower to represent the idea of a new beginning. Instead of using scissors, my paper was torn to give it an uneven edge.

God is the only one I know who can take the darkness of our life and transform it into something beautiful. It takes time to grow and heal, like a lovely rose that opens gracefully one petal at a time until it is fully boomed. May the fragrance of the "ONE who redeemed me from an eternity of darkness"......linger long after I've faded away.

Oh no....don't look now

Believe it or not....not all "artist types" are crazy, broken or immoral. "As a culture we tend to define creativity too narrowly and to think of it in elitist terms, as something belonging to a small chosen tribe of "real artists." But in reality, everything we do requires making creative choices, although we seldom recognize that fact. The way in which we dress, set up our homes, do our jobs.....even the people we involve ourselves with- these all are expressions of our creativity. It is our erroneous beliefs about creativity, our cultural mythology about artists (all artists are broken, crazy, promiscuous, self centered or have trust funds) that encourage us to leave our dreams unfulfilled." Julia Cameron, The Complete Artist's Way

Random acts of Creativity

"Random acts of creativity" always make me smile when I stumble across them! These fun shoes made me want to go home and paint my five inch high heels, Oh wait.... I mean my flip-flops

Soaking in the Truth

Everyday we have opportunity to learn valuable lessons from the simplest situations. Today I was reminded of an important "life lesson" from a sponge! In Art4Healing classes, participants use sponges instead of paint brushes. Although our sponges had been thoroughly used and were ready for the trash, I noticed they had taken on a unique beauty of their own. While other's were gathering their paintings to take home, I decided to gather up our classroom "trash" for a photo shoot.

Everyday I am given a choice to "soak-in" colors. Will I choose from a palette of bitterness, greed and criticism, or will my life be painted with forgiveness, hope and joy? Everyday we are given opportunities to absorb the colors of truth or the colors of a lie? Every experience (every color) is designed to mark us, making us unique in the hands of a loving Master Artist, the Creator of the universe! What some consider, ugly, worthless trash... God lovingly renames as "beautiful and valuable."

Expressive Art

The continual struggle for me in class is to remember one very important thing...We are NOT to approach these sessions like other art classes. We will be trained to engage in artistic expression-which can be quite abstract. The goal is NOT a great painting of trees and landscapes, fruit or buildings.

Participants are purposely given a very limited time to execute a painting This is done so we less tempted to over think, or critically scrutinize our compositions. As we abandon our need to control the outcome of a painting, we allow the colors, shapes and strokes to speak for themselves.

Art4Healing Facilitators use a specific method to carefully walk each participant through this process. There are many steps, which come in the form of questions. Each participants answers these questions using colors and shapes....not words or images. It's spontaneous. It sounds crazy, but it is surprising how our sub-conscience will respond if allowed, if we are willing to release control and surrender to the process. Very eye opening. The results can be dynamic and bring a lot of clarity to our thoughts, fears, memories and aspirations

Assignment- "The Incredible Shrinking Machine"

The questions and prompts from our instructor takes us on an unexpected journey inside ourself. First stop, our head/mind .....AUUgh! That seems sort of scary to me especially since I have been under so much stress! My instructor reminds us not to panic, be completely honest and respond quickly, using only two colors. For the next hour, each student was guided on an adventure-using specific questions and prompts we traveled from place to place, exploring and documenting with colors and shapes what was tucked inside of us. Our hurts, our joys...things that we never felt safe enough to express were showing up in our paintings! It was powerful.

Observation: In the picture below in the right corner there is darkness from a painful memory, but notice it isn't taking up much space. In fact the white paint around that area was a response to the question of forgiveness. Notice where the white paint is placed on the canvas.

The purple squares are a sense of destiny, important things I've learned through life, but I'm not sure how God is using them. How is He connecting them all together? Blue swirly lines can be seen trying to connect some of the squares.

The tangerine and yellow color speaks of joy, reaching into all directions of the canvas. The strong sweeping upward stokes-reflect hope....and so on. You get the idea I'm sure. When our paintings are complete, we spend a significant amount of time in class discussing and sharing what we gained from the assignment. It is a very enlightening process.

Note to self...next time take photos before art class...not after

Kathy and Laurie after a long day of creative exploits!

Value the process

A workshop assignment, “Melting Colors” - sounded easy enough. It was one of our first paintings and my first time ever using acrylics. My paint was ready, sponges and Q-Tips in hand, when all the sudden a flood of negative thoughts crashed in on me; These colors aren’t blending the way I want. How are we suppose to paint if we can only use a sponge and a Q-Tip? I don't have any control! These thoughts were followed by...Auugh...her painting is so much better than mine. Am I doing it right? This looks horrible! Apparently ALL my “committee members” are alive and well and decided to pay me a visit right then and there! It was an eye-opening experience. What did I learn that evening? First, there sure is a lot of chatter going on in my head! It was hard for me to surrender to the process and relax. I am a “result oriented” not “process oriented” person. I wanted clear instructions, a sense of control, plenty of feedback and lots of affirmation. I also realized, if left unchecked- my chatty committee members are capable of completely sabotaging even a simple 30 minute art project! YIKES. Not a pretty sight. This beginner art lesson (and the others that were soon to follow) would teach me the value of going through “the process".

Class Assignment- "Melting Colors"

"Usually when we say we can't do something, what we mean is we won't do something unless we can guarantee that we'll do it perfectly. When we are willing to accept that anything worth doing, might be worth doing badly...our options widen! If you didn't have to do something perfectly....what would you try?"

Julia Cameron, The Complete Artist's way