Art has always been a spiritual experience for me, allowing me to explore concepts, emotions and dreams that could not otherwise be examined.
…When there are no words, she offers us melodies to sing our heartache.
…When there are no melodies, she offers us colors to paint our joy.
…When there are no colors, she offers us the dance so our bodies may tell the story.
With Art, there will always be a way to share our visions and our stories. They need not be locked away in our hearts and innermost chambers. They can be revealed with authenticity, feeling and bold creativity.
Art has also been an incredible teacher, enticing me to expand my consciousness and skills so that I am constantly moving beyond my comfort zones into new territory. Each medium is a unique language so as a multi-disciplinary artist, I delight in learning how to express in each form. When we understand the nuances of various languages or media, our fluency opens up many options for communication and imagination. Just as a poem written in French offers access to concepts that are not available in English, a story told in sculpture offers dimensions that are different than a story told in watercolors.
Art has also been an astonishing confidante, the one I would turn to in times of despair or sorrow. Nothing is ever too ugly for her eyes – she accepts all the twists and turns of my fate and feeling. She listens deeply and offers tools for us to process our pains and pleasures. She’s watched with equanimity as I have banged out my anger on the piano keys, plucked out my losses on the guitar strings and spun out my ecstacy on the dance floor.
Finally, Art is a meditation for me. My childhood passion for drawing offered my first experience of profoundly focused stillness – where the paper was flesh, the pencil was the breath and each line I drew was a moment of zen consciousness. As I contemplated and studied the forms of things, I started to feel their essence and behold an astounding beauty that is actually inherent in all things…
As Helen Keller said: “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart”.
