Artiversary

In September of 2009 with the prompting from a friend, I started a monthly art group. We get together once a month to eat, talk and make art. To celebrate our two year Artiversary, we made group paintings on canvas, by switching canvases every few minutes. So that I could participate without having to watch the time, I turned the iPod on and we switched canvases after every third song. It was so much fun and at the end, we each had a canvas to keep (we chose them white elephant style!) (for information about starting your own art group, read my guest post over at Always Chrysti).


  Happy ladies after choosing their canvases!   A couple of finished pieces   And of course we had some help 

Eve

I call her Eve: she peers at the moon, longing to be closer to nature.

Lost and Found

if you don't get lost, you may never be found

finding my center

When my heart and mind are questioning things, I turn to art. And so today I turned to art. I still have no more answers than when I started out, but in the process of art making I found my center. I let go of the questions, of the worries and just created.

I was not ready to create art about the issue at hand today, and so I worked on a call for art that I knew I wanted to participate in. The show is called Freedom From, Freedom To and is being organized by the St. Louis Rescue and Restore Coalition. The call for art states "What does Freedom mean to you? We are challenging you to help us raise awareness about the unfortunate reality that slavery still exists today. Whether it is called trafficking in persons, human trafficking, forced labor, forced prostitution, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, or modern-day slavery—we must take action to put a stop to the exploitation of others."

When I began contemplating this, the image of the butterfly came to mind; specifically of hands letting butterflies go to fly freely in the air. I did a search for a quote, and found this one (which was perfect for what I wanted to express): I only ask to be free. The butterfly is free. ~Charles Dickens

And as I searched I also found that the symbolism for the butterfly is freedom, the soul, change, joy, color and creativity. The image I had intuitively represented seemed to embody perfectly the mission of the call for art: freedom from oppression and the chains of human trafficking, the soul and livelihood of those involved in human trafficking, changing perceptions about human trafficking, joy resulting from freedom and the color and creativity in the artwork created. And as I further thought about the image, I began to see that the butterflies are souls that have found freedom through the hands of those to end human trafficking. It is a wish realized through art that someday all people will be free.

Remembering

Last year my classmates and the art therapy community lost a great mentor, Carol Lark. This week, my class learned that we had lost a classmate, Adrienne. It is at times like this that my words fail me and I turn to art.

For some moments in life there are no words. ~ Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

So I got out a canvas that I had, and began painting. I knew that the labyrinth would be an important part of the image—for the metaphor of the journey, as well as for Carol. I also knew that I wanted to represent all of my classmates. I also had thought that I wanted to include birds. When Chris remarked that it looked like a tree, the image came together. My classmates represented as birds in the tree, with Carol and Adrienne represented by the birds flying. When I was reminded in a facebook post of Carol's mantra "remember to breathe" the image was complete. Adrienne and Carol, you will always hold a place in my heart. This is for you.