Art Helps us Heal
Art making with my grandson
“Creativity is a powerful medium – art helps us to heal, thrive and survive. Especially in these difficult times” (Sonja Smalheer).
Every part of me agrees with these words. In fact my heart lurches with a visceral response… YES, yes, yes!
I’m sure that even those who have lived as strangers towards their own artistic selves, would agree that there appears to be a primeval, almost sacred healing that can occur when participating in art – of any form. I remember the sweet, heady elation I felt the first time I sketched in the rain, squatting on a rock overlooking the breathtaking Borrowdale valley in the Lake District. I was 18. As I tried to capture this wonderful assault on my senses, I experienced a baptism of joy and what I can only describe as ‘a healing’.
In 2012 Robert Redford said…
“The country is so wounded, bleeding and hurting right now. The country needs to be healed – it’s not going to be healed from the top, politically. How are we going to heal? Art is the healing force”.
Wow, such uncompromising words… shooting straight from the hip and as true today as 8 years ago. Art is a healing force!!
If this is true, then we all have a secret weapon of healing at our disposal. Around us people are hurting and struggling internally and externally and we have a tool for healing that we are carrying around within us, with the ability to release us from the hand-cuffs of fear and limiting mindsets.
So often we self-judge whatever we create, demand instant excellence, fear judgement from others and view what we make & create as needing to be ‘of use’ (saying to oursleves, “why bother making something that isn’t useful”). All these reactions keep us from experiencing the generous healing power of art.
Instead of valuing our remarkable ability to express ourselves in the arts (as children do) and view this as an essential requirement for our mental well-being, we stay un-healed.
This week I discovered the work of Renee Phillips, the founder of the Healing Power of Art + Artists (HPAA), a community of artists, writers and advocates from around the globe. She believes that art is a powerful catalyst for positive change, not just for the individual, but for the world.
It made me wonder what a world would look like if we all took our art practices seriously and bathed in them every day, to become healers of ourselves and the communities we live it. I love that idea!
There are different obstacles to finding our way into the healing space of art… and they are all in our minds. They range from, “I can’t pick up a pencil or brush, because all I produce is rubbish (in my eyes)”, to, “I’m ok about what I produce, but I’m terrified of sharing my work with others”.
To be honest, the only questions worth asking myself are, “What do I enjoy doing?”, “Is it liberating me from the incessant noise of my frenzied mind?” and “Is my art practice helping me to enjoy relaxed-attention, which will release potential in other areas of my life?”
“Art making has the ability to move people along their journey of grief and loss, into a more balanced place of healing and hope” — Austin Kleon
Art helps to repair dis-ease, and grow an inner sense of self. It brings bits of ourselves together to create wholeness and it heals places that are difficult to reach any other way.
This challenges me, once again, about my propensity to neglect what I know to be good for me. My dearest friend has on his desk these words, “Write or Die”, in order to keep him serious about his writing practice. I think I need a similar call to arms… “Make art to heal, to stay in balance, to thrive and survive”.
