In a world where everyone is suffering some ways it is easy to fall into comparison and minimise the impacts of our own as others 'had it worst' .By doing this we ultimately rob ourselves from the opportunity to heal, grow and become stronger from our adverse past experiences.
This piece was inspired by Post Traumatic Growth and was created during my own healing journey.
While creating this artwork I aimed to depict the reality of the raw emotional ups and downs during recovery showing that the road to healing is not a straight line and give permission to my self to let myself heal at my own pace.
I applied Positive Psychology Art Coaching techniques on myself and used the surface of my canvas to visually document my own healing.
Throughout this process I used colour as my main instrument and intuitive abstracts painting techniques working with a squeegee.
I invite the viewer to reflect on their journey, recognise and celebrate every little steps healing from traumas caused by adverse life events.
I started my creative process by assigning meanings to colours that resonated with each areas I was working on in the moment and used my painting practice as I guided myself through the session to recontextualize the meanings one by one while being both the client and the practitioner
This process enabled me to externalise my past experiences and create space for pain that I suppressed to resurface and identify the parts of my soul that still needed healing.
I allowed myself to feel my raw emotions in their fullest form and used my current knowledge of self to reflect on how far I came, turning the pas
t experiences into wisdom in the present.
By guiding myself and visually contemplate how each elements of my experiences contributed to developing strengths within my character shaping me who I am, I began to celebrating each. This filled me a deep sense of gratitude and pride.
The colours that represented my resurfacing pain at first now evolved into new meanings such as empowerment, strength helping me to reshape my internal narrative into a helpful one, from victim to survivor.
As the last step, I distressed my still drying artwork with hot water. The water washing away the excess paint helped me to let go of the weight of my experiences I have still been carrying and no longer served me in the present.
This artwork is a celebration of healing and an abstract depiction of the accelerated human strength and growth we gain through suffering.
This Artwork is available here