journal | Pretty Real Behind the Veil

Posts Tagged ‘journal’

Adaptation I

Posted in art journal, art therapy, creativity, non-duality, self-portrait, tagged adaptation, art blog, art journal, art therapy, emergence, essence, evolution, healing, identity, inner growth, journal, self-discovery, surrealist, symbolism on December 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This very autobiographical piece done in my art journal in mixed media..pen & ink, colored pencil, watercolor, and acrylic. It was expressed as a wordless journal entry, and I will leave only the image as explanation here. You are free to interpret this image for yourself; even those who know me well, have discovered facets of me in it that I didn’t even notice myself at first. Since I can’t plan to draw anything at all, I didn’t decide anything consciously in creating this image, and am also discovering the messages as they are revealed to me.

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What I Had In Mind..aka This Is Your Art On Brains

Posted in alternative therapy, art blog, art journal, art therapy, pain management, tagged art therapy, doodle, journal, meditation, zentangles on October 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

So I hope I’m coming off a 2+ day flare (fingers crossed), and yesterday was really yucky, so I drew this last night in my 5”x7” sketchbook that I doodle in at bedtime, and yes, those are some tiiiiiiiiny lines! I added the color this morning just for fun. I’ve been working on a post to describe some options for accessing the power of your brain to improve pain, stress, and other discomforts, with references to the experts in the relevant fields, and links to more info, but the flare sidetracked me (can’t do words or critical thinking when flaring and trying to manage without meds), but still had the brain in the back of my mind, so I just went with it and let the flow just go with whatever came to mind. As you can see, I have doodled this freely, and used a brain sort of outline to frame the doodling. And, of course, whatever ended up in that frame was what spontaneously flowed out of my mind, with no plan whatsoever. I really think that zentangles like this work best for me when I’m in a lot of pain, and they give me so much enjoyment, as well! And while I’m actually doing them, my perceived pain levels are minimal for large chunks of time. I’ve been told that the more I practice this during pain periods, the more effective it will be for me, and the easier it will be to tap into this powerful strength of the brain! I’ve already seen improvement since I began doing this just over the last few weeks.

This was done in graphite, pens, markers, colored pencils.

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The Face of Pain

Posted in art blog, art journal, pain management, self-portrait, tagged blog, journal, self-portrait on October 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

This is me, in pain, yesterday, in fact, and when I’m in pain, this is where I have to start to manage it, and this is what I can take, literally and figuratively. Can’t take pills for pain, so I have 3 things at my disposal: my two hands (to the extent that they are working that day) and my brain to manage pain and plug into a creative flow that can help me to not focus on the pain. I post what I draw to manage pain, but thought it was important to also document where I have to come from to use art in pain management, and this is an actual portrait of me in the throes of a nasty flair. I think the face tells the whole story. I sketched this from photos that I took yesterday with my webcam during a bad pain episode, just before I started drawing. My husband says this is excruciatingly accurate; it certainly *feels* right.

I can sometimes draw some cool things at these times, but no, pain is NOT pretty, and it doesn’t feel pretty—AT ALL. I’m just grateful to be able to do something to get through it. It was disturbing to even draw this, because I don’t like to focus on the downside. I don’t want to do this very often, but it’s important to me to document the painful reality that is my starting point. I think it’s clear that I was not in a good place, and not letting pain beat me is essential. If I can start from right here and DO something to get through this, I can “take” anything, even if I can’t TAKE anything for the pain, and I can get through it. Keeping my pencil sharp for what comes next….