Day 290: The Healing Power of Art

Here are some random thoughts — and images — this morning,  about “The Healing Power of Art.”

This is  a piece of art, by Elisa Tenenbaum,  that hangs in my living room (and which appeared in this blog on Day 174: Surprised by Joy).

I’ve spent a lot of wonderful moments, gazing at that.

Yesterday, when I (finally!) spoke to somebody about my will, that expert suggested that I choose a few special items to leave to specific people.  I immediately thought of Elisa Tenenbaum’s good work.

Also, yesterday, I spoke with another expert, who  specializes in EMDR (“Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy ( as well  as other healing work for people with traumatic memories).

That expert often suggests creating a “container” for difficult-to-manage feelings that might come up during that kind of work.

I’ve written about creating “containers,” for various uses, in this blog before. (For a summary of all of these, see Day 245: Lucky.)

Here’s one container

for throwing away unhelpful things that other people have said.

Here’s another container

for holding “emergency messages” that help during times of trouble.

Where was I? Oh, yes. I was writing about a container for difficult-to-manage feelings, that might come up during healing work for past traumatic experiences.

When the expert spoke about this, I immediately thought of this container (front and center, in picture):

Over the years, I have witnessed a lot of healing, through the creation of art.

Sometimes, that art includes drawings:

Sometimes, it includes different kinds of art:

Sometimes, it includes many people, healing together:

*

That concludes our blog post for today, ladies and gentlemen.

Thanks to Elisa Tenenbaum (again), Cathy Malchiodi, Kenneth Bruscia, healers  and experts everywhere, and to you, for visiting today.

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* For more about this, see this website: http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/haiti/