Thoughts on the Healing Aspects of the Arts

I have always wondered about the healing powers of the arts.  Having walked through it personally – it seems more practical than magical.  Reality says, my life is changed forever… I don't wake up with an endless blue sky every morning.  I sense instead some days, a reachable horizon that appears closer and closer. When I apply myself to my work in clay however, the endlessness of creative possibility becomes my new horizon. The challenge of bringing to life the ideas in my head become more than a distraction.  It is an ability to step out of the place where reality is threatening and into a world where that horizon disappears.  A reality of participating in the true work of creation which in itself is as never ending as the spirit that lives in us.  In that place, artistic play is a chance to defy the bogeyman of death, and dance to the tune you used to hear as a child.  It removes me from that darkening plane and gives me a time that is full of possibility and promise.   So much more than a mere distraction!  I am grateful for this ability – to be free of self-focus and released into something full of life.

"Cancer Landscape" came from a group of photo's of my illness.  The background is made up of pictures of my mastectomy scars that have been altered and colored.  The flowers are made from photos of my bald head, my radiation burns and my mastectomy scars. 

"Breast Cancer Bouquets" are the same flowers enlarged with my biopsy report and prognosis made into stems and petals.

"High Places", is comprised of more images of my chest and scars which are painted, cut and torn to make a landscape and sky.  The rocks are made from an image of a breast cancer cell. The little deer has my face.  The sun my face rising over it all.

I have found this process to be extremely healthy and a good way to process the multitude of emotions that this illness has produced.