art therapy

Sometimes Mercury is in retrograde, as an astrologically savvy friend, who shall remain nameless, likes to remind me. Or perhaps the curves that life throws us are simply due to circumstance and the relationships we find ourselves in, positive or otherwise. All I know is that mercury or life has seemingly knocked me upside the head lately. Yet thank goodness for art, and the therapy that it provides.

When dealing with stress, any type of outlet is a (mostly) positive thing. For creative beings, like myself, expressing feelings, stress, joy and pure emotions can turn lemons into lemonade. As I worked in the studio today I had two visions in my head. Beyonce taking a baseball bat to car windows in her Hold Up video and the other of Elizabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting. When pushed to the brink I often find myself stating "Don't fuck with the babysitter." Somewhere in the outer gray matter of my brain I had a memory of this line, if not immediately remembering where the phrase came from, I knew it was an appropriate response to being pushed to my limit. Thanks to Google I tracked down the original source and it still applies.

The gift that comes from this angst is in the creation of beautiful, and always expressive, art. I'm not one who likes to have things handed to me. I want to think, examine and interpret. I want to look at work that is multidimensional and challenges me to analyze my own experience while questioning what the artist is trying to convey. Every art piece changes based on the interpretation of the viewer, which is the nugget that makes art richer and more interesting with each passing participant.

While I'm uncertain of the tortured artist analogy, I do know that as creators we are deeply feeling beings who are expressive and show our love, anger and emotions by creating. Every ounce of what we are experiencing comes out in our work and for that the world in a better place. Without it the galleries would be filled with gray.