The Healing Power of Creativity

Transforming Loss to Honor and Strength

From the ongoing series "Artists Who Inspire"
By Renée Phillips, The Artrepreneur Coach

You may also want to read my articles on this website " Artists Who Inspire" and "Artists Who Dare to Step Outside the Box".

Angela Canada-Hopkins, Cancer Cell #8, acrylic on canvas, 20" x 24". “Even though it is unseen to most people, I find beauty in the abnormalities of a cell." Do not duplicate this image without the permission of the artist.

Etched in my brain are vivid recollections from childhood of my father physically assaulting my sister and mother. Unable to protect them from harm my deafening screams only increased my sense of powerlessness.

Years later my feelings of helplessness returned. Following a devastating battle against breast cancer, my sister, a mother of two young sons, died in 1997. That same year, as I found myself in a new role as a surrogate mother to my nephews, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. I became her primary caretaker and did my best to protect her until her peaceful death in 2005.

What helped me cope with the traumatic events in my life during those difficult years? My friends, writing, presenting motivational speeches, commitment to spiritual studies, and counseling artists. By helping others discover and express their personal and professional power I found my own.

There will always be a space in my heart that only my mother and sister could fill. But, to stop the pain, grief and mental chatter, I abandon the realm of logic and intellect, and go to a place of pure spontaneous creativity. In this place of mindless, timeless bliss, I sculpt small organic forms while feelings of love, feminine power and beauty flourish. It is here that I can feel a spiritual connection with these dear women and honor them.

The subject of art as a healing force has been of great interest to me for several years. It has been said that the creative process and healing come from the same source. I am intrigued by stories of how art has served as a catalyst for self-healing or helped to turn tragedy into solace or triumph.

The heartfelt, riveting personal details of survival, triumph and transformation that have been so generously shared with me by artist serve to confirm the healing benefits of the creative process.

Here are just a few of the many stories from people who were able to use their art to overcome the tragedies and challengs in their lives.

Many artists are able to totally reverse their preconceived notions through the creative process. Such an artist is Angela Canada-Hopkins, (www.CanadaHopkins.com) from Fort Collins, Colorado. She has discovered the beauty in ugliness. She admits, “Even though it is unseen to most people, I find beauty in the abnormalities of a cell. After loosing my father to cancer, the bittersweet and therapeutic irony began to spill out onto canvas in the form of colorful, fatal structures."

Angela continues, "I think finding beauty in the ugliness brings hope and awareness to cancer.

The start of the painting is completely experimental and random. To create the circular structure, I refer to photographs of cells but also leave things up to chance by letting the paint and my artistic intuition lead me as I work.”

Sue Martin (www.cocreativeworks.com/gallerymain.html), an artist from Salt Lake City, Utah, turned to art after losing her mother. She says, “After Momma died, I started painting again, and did a series of paintings based on blog entries and on stories people told about Momma. Those stories helped me to see her, not just as a mother — one I considered my best friend in life — but as a great friend to others, a wonderful wife, a very sexy, fun-loving younger woman, wonderful hostess/cook/gardener/caregiver, and on and on.

This more complete picture of her, thanks to all those friends’ and family’s stories, is a huge part of her legacy. To say it was therapeutic is an understatement. But when I had a solo show of the paintings, I felt that I was giving her the honor and recognition she so well deserved.”

Art has also helped Laurie Barrows (www.lauriebarrows.com) cope with loss. This Sacramento, California artist is about “Making the World a Happier Place, One Smile at a Time.” She states, “I was the prime caretaker of my brother while he was in Hospice. The amazing discussions we had together gave a new vision to my work after he passed on. I still feel he is touching my life through the growth and spiritual component in my work.”

Nancy Christy-Moore (www.nchristy.com) is an internationally-recognized, award-winning painter from Phoenix, Arizona. She brings the joy of color and movement to her “Inner Paintings.”

She shares, “Eight years ago, my only child, my beautiful, creative and deeply spiritual daughter, was diagnosed with stage four uterine cancer at age 34, and I faced the biggest challenge in my life. When her life ended six months later, it became a daily challenge to find a reason to continue. In the studio, splashing paint and working on completing my paintings focused my mind and spirit and got me through the toughest depression and grief I’ve ever experienced.

Managing my classes and exhibiting and selling my work also gave me solace and paved the way back to a full expression of joy and passion for life which I enjoy today. The pain, anger and despair all disappear when I’m creating.”

Nancy conducts workshops which she says are about “finding your inner child and expressing your inner feelings as much as making viable paintings with good composition and design.

Mary Lawler (artid.com/members/marylawler), an artist from Springfield, Massachusetts, turned to a new art medium to deal with the loss of her mother. She explains, “Exploring a new medium — paper and thread (sometimes called paper quilting) — lifted me while grieving the loss of my mother. My mother was a talented needle worker, and I never cared much for sewing, no matter how hard she tried to interest me. When she died, I got her sewing machine and all her embroidery materials. I began working with them as a way to connect to my mother in a way I couldn’t do in life. Now my work is partly to connect with her, and partly to honor her.”

Reclaiming Freedom of Expression Beatriz Ledesma Ph.D., lives in Chicago, Illinois, where she combines her solo psychotherapy practice and professional painting practice. “In the early 1970s, my birth country, Argentina, became the hub of political turmoil and fascist regime. People were disappearing regardless of being a political activist or not. Up to more than 30,000 people of my generation disappeared. It was then when I took refuge at the Instituto de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. Painting and sculpture became my voice, and my physical and emotional salvation. From there on, my life as an artist has been one of self-satisfaction, fulfillment and enjoyment.”

Rochelle Carr (www.rochellecarr.com) is an artist from San Francisco, California, who paints hearts with vibrant colors and shiny gold leaf. In March, 2010, her 24-year old daughter and her girlfriend were kidnapped, held at knifepoint, drugged, beaten and strangled. These young women fought for their lives, ran for their lives, and managed to break free without being raped or killed.

Rochelle says, “Every day, until this bad person is caught, I live a mother’s horrific worst nightmare. I cannot find that bad person and make sure justice is finally served so we can all sleep a restful night. What I do have is the power to paint and create beautiful things so that the bad man doesn’t win. Creating fine art for the world is the only thing that transports me for a brief moment out of my grief, pain, fear and sadness … One work at a time, I paint myself back into an artful, beautiful world.”

Transforming Physical Challenges to Empowerment
Kathi Peters (http://kathipeters.com), is an American Contemporary Realist painter from Bangor, Maine, who works with casein. She reveals, “I suffered an ischemic stroke three years ago, which left me with aphasia and with right-sided weakness. I am right-handed, but found I could still paint. Maybe my languages skills were ‘gone,’ but I could hold a paint brush and paint. Life is good ... I continue to recover. My voice is strongest through my artwork. I am driven to paint.”

Joe Hendry (www.joehendry.com) is an artist specializing in figurative and landscape paintings from the United Kingdom. He shares, “My life came crashing to a stop when I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 2004 and I could no longer continue in my position of Design Director for a busy corporate interiors company. I started painting, as it was about all I could manage to do. As well as being therapeutic, it gave me a small income, and today I am a fully self-employed artist (painter). Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say.”

Renée Phillips is an artist advocate and the Director of Manhattan Arts International at www.ManhattanArts.com. Known as "The Artrepreneur Coach", she counsels artists worldwide. She is the author of Presentation Power Tools For Fine Artists, and Success Now! For Artists: A Motivational Guide For The Artrepreneur.

Read more articles by Renée Phillips on this website.

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