art practice
links, thoughts, and things
When I start an art practice, I have no idea where it will go. Like dancing, there is no choreography for me (unless I am in a class). I am letting my body/mind/spirit be in flow. This week I have been using watercolor to process and check in with myself in the morning. I have been writing more and thinking *somewhat* more slowly. My thoughts and feeling typically come quick quickly. The neurological spice I experience, undiagnosed and pretty confusing, takes a reasonably constant effort to quell … I invite a slowing down; it is a constant process. Being a therapist and a facilitator has helped me slow down deeply (see this guest post on the Kinsugi Therapist Collective) about these experiences.
https://www.kintsugitherapistcollective.com/
I have created a new space on Instagram to share more of the inner workings of how dance, art, and meditation come together to help me heal, and in turn, I hope this space will help you heal.
You will see the page on this Instagram page @nourish_allow_expand (if you are reading my substack, you can join this private Instagram page). I will link it to my @obscured_journaler Instagram page. Let’s chat if we don’t know each other before you join. It is not a page for everyone; I want to hold it for folks sensitive to exploration, intrigued by art, and folks who will love up anyone who posts their art there. I see this space as a community space to share our raw, unfiltered art. Plus, I will be telling you more about my upcoming workshops. Not constantly, but I hope in a fun and engaging way.
Recently a few comments about my work have stuck with me and are helping me craft and re-craft the messages of offerings.
One friend asked, do you ever do art for “art” sake (paraphrase)? I think the question was also asking … if I created art to sell or because I see a thing I want to create (in my mind’s eye or in the world). The answer is rarely; almost a complete nope, I can count and find the number of art pieces I aimed to create to represent an already existing item. I have some fairly consistent shapes in my work, hearts, rainbows, waves, clouds, and infinity symbols, … I am calling in this AMAZING new podcast: Common Shapes by Mar Grace.
A few “finished pieces” come to mind: one is two buds of a bird of paradise plant with the words “all we need is love” written/painted underneath. Here is a sample of work you can copy, share, or just simply enjoy. These pieces are from the very beginning of my expressive arts journey.
I deeply loved this question about the art I create; I see my new friends trying to understand what is going on in these messy, unpredictable, expressive arts practices.
I also remember clearly a wildly talented painter in the person-centered expressive arts training saying, and I paraphrase, the movement scares me like the painting scares you. After half a decade of being out of the closet and doing art weekly, neither of them scares me anymore.
Painting feels like second nature, just like dance/movement. Putting them in the world scares me! Hence the private Instagram page with more dance and more posts.
If you are an artist and you want to move through blocks in your painting, move with me. If you are a dancer and you want to paint your next movement piece, paint with me. If you are a technology worker, laid off from your last gig due to this crumbling radicalized capitalist system, do ALL the THINGS that will be offered in upcoming workshops. You need them! No matter who you are, you are welcome as long as we both see the work we can create as a “fit.”
If you are queer, check out my SF-LGBT center offering.
As I shared in the KTC post, expressive art is a wild cousin to “art therapy.” It is perfect for me. A second question that is sticking in my mind from talking about my work this week is, “Adults do that?!” I shared what expressive arts looks like in therapy sessions and said, “Yes”! Do adults love committing to art in session? Do they dive in like kids? Nope. However, they do it, adults can play too. And as my dear friend @aacarttherapy shared the other day, if you dive right in and get folks to start with the art, it happens more often.
Y’all, I have said it before, this shit works. Art heals, we have lost our way, and some of us come to do art, dance, and meditate. Live a little more in the moment.