art that supports the healing process

Artwork that supports the healing process, created on commission.

This artwork is a set of three little paintings, in gouache on watercolor paper, that I did for a client who wished to resolve the polarity of sensing her own power versus being in a state of fear, feeling a lack of power.  We worked with Anna Halprin’s exercise of dancing each of a pair of opposites: first for three minutes each, then one and a half minutes and so on, with each segment becoming progressively shorter.  What happens is that the relationship and interconnectedness within the pair of opposites is revealed.  I love this exercise.

My client, a medical intuitive, had a vision of herself in a state of empowerment, wearing a pagoda on her head.  Simultaneously, negative inner voices ate away at her self-confidence.  Contemplating her dilemma, while in a semi-dream state, I “saw” a Balinese dancer and “heard” Gamelan music.  A bit of research revealed that the pagoda from her vision was worn by Balinese dancers when possessed by the Goddess.

I created a portrait of my client wearing the floral pagoda.  Her hands are depicted in two separate paintings which can be positioned to create a variety of mudras.  The triptych functions as a mirror to speak to (and as) both the empowered and disempowered selves.  Inevitably, it is discovered that each feed the other.