Expressive Arts Carnival No. 3: Two Colors
Welcome to the August 2010 edition of the Expressive Arts Carnival. This month's theme, see announcement, was to "choose two (and only two) colors and make a painting that represents where you have been mentally for the past week or so."
You must have a Flash-enabled browser. There is a menu bar at the bottom. Click the "full screen" icon on the right to enter (or leave) the high resolution fullscreen mode. Click the left "play" button to start the show. The music is Mischa Maisky performing the Sarabande movement from Bach's Cello Suite #2 in D Minor which you can find on iTunes.
For the more traditional view, here are the entries in the order they were received.
Entry 1: Ivory
Ivory titled this piece "Feeling Lost" and wrote: "I am feeling extremely lost and overwhelmed."
Entry 2: Clinically Clueless
Clinically Clueless wrote: "I used my non-dominant hand. This exercise came at a good time as I am working through some of these issues and feelings in therapy now. During one of the sessions, I said that I feel like coloring. The colors are a bit washed out. The colors are a red-orange and purple-blue."
Entry 3: Castorgirl
Castorgirl wrote that this piece is a "representation of how we've felt over the last few weeks as well... scared, frightened, isolated, overwhelmed, hopeless and beyond help."
Entry 4: Inner Family
Inner Family wrote: "There's been more focus lately on the system working as a united whole, even if we never fully integrate. We are our own light, a ball of light, though we have raw wounds, angry red welts of pain and memory. The beliefs we still struggle with, beliefs about our self-worth and the world around us, are a prison. Still, we continue to heal, to let our light shine through."
Entry 5: Jahda
Jahda titled this piece: "2+2≠5".
Entry 6: Shen
Shen wrote: "In another week, this project would have turned out quite differently. Having spent two and half weeks with my family of origin gathered around my house, this piece seems to express how I was feeling by the end of that time. I had only one meltdown during the entire 17 days, which is remarkable and a huge improvement over any time in the past. However, inside it was a barely controlled chaos, most of the time. I was just 'getting through it' by holding myself in the protective custody of my most spiritual self."
Entry 7: Paul
I wrote: "This is the anatomy of a crash. I have been doing so well and felt "on track" for the past week, then all of a sudden, the bottom fell out. The image is a representational timeline of the past week."
Entry 8: Katie
Katie titled this piece "Stinking Thinking" and wrote: "What I discovered lately is that I've been feeling trapped because I've closed myself up into a tiny box of my own narrow expectations, too much pressure I put on myself, and lack of needed expression and connection to those around me."
Entry 9: Kerro
Kerro wrote: "I started with blue and yellow drops of paint, and I worked with them until they merged in a pattern and colour that said something about my week." So, she kept in the guidelines, by using only two colors, and merging them!!
That's all folks! Thanks to all those who contributed. If you think this Carnival is worthwhile, then let others know about it and we can continue to increase the contributors for future months.
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Hello Everyone! Beautiful work! I am hoping in the near future that I will be able to focus enough to do this. These projects scare me right now when I try to think about reflecting my insides to something material...outside. But part of me carries this exercise and is thinking about it. I love fall and maybe I will be able to connect then. Kudos to all of you!
thank you so much, paul. i was really happy that you chose the line out of the post i wrote that did mean the most to me about what i created. thank you for taking the time to do that.
and for taking the time to do all this. it must take energy to do this carnival, on top of whatever else might be going on with you in your own life. i appreciate your work. and appreciate getting to be a part of this.
everyone's pieces are so great. i find myself pondering each one, wondering what has been going on for each person here lately...
i know we each struggle at times. but sometimes i forget that. times when i'm feeling all alone. so it helps so much to know others out there are struggling and working through things too. it gives me comfort and hope to see that. that's how things like this carnival make me feel anyway.
wishing everyone well~
Thank you both Katie and Nansie. Katie, I've enjoyed your participation! And glad you find them helpful. Nansie, the Carnival will be here when you are ready. No rush.
Note: The Carnival has been republished to include a slideshow (with music) presentation. Visit: Slideshow Presentation. Since this is a new feature, let me know if there are any problems.
Oh wow, what wonderful work! I'm always in awe of the pieces people create - beautiful, powerful, evocative. I can relate to all of them, in different ways.
Thanks so much Paul. I love this Carnival. :)
Thanks Kerro. It's all the contributions that make it. It's great to see all the various ways in which people approach the same "assignment" (if you want to call it that).
I just wanted to say that I love your art carnivals. I was too late to submit for this one, but hope to submit in the future. It's great to see and listen to everyone's unique experiences.
Thanks for your kind words, Sanity. I would love it if you contributed to a future one! That would be great!
Paul, this is wonderful. Well done, love the slideshow.
hi paul, i just watched the slideshow with the music and it was wonderful! i love the music you chose. very moving. it was meditative and felt even more meaningful watching our pieces put together with this beautiful deep cello sound...
thank you!!!
Paul, I am not big in awards yet an award on awareness I would love to pass on to you. Getting to know you has helped me and I am sure you help other too. Maybe you like to visit and accept? Thanks for being out there.
http://recoveryinart.blogspot.com
My first thoughts when seeing the carnival this month, was "so much pain"...
Ivory, it's so good to see you. I miss the words of wisdom and courage from your blog. Your piece really spoke to me... Lightening is such a powerful force.
Jadha, I was curious as to why or where the equation comes from for you? I've had a similar mathematical question be chanted internally for the last week... It doesn't make any mathematical sense, but it makes sense to the one chanting it.
Shen... your piece is incredibly emotive, thank you for sharing it with us.
Paul, your piece speaks volumes... I'm sorry this has been your week.
Kerro... thank you for bringing the Carnival to a close on a positive note. It's fitting that it end with your piece of hope - a reminder that there is hope in this healing journey.
Viewing the pieces in the slideshow was incredibly moving... Thank you Paul.
Take care,
CG
hi paul~ thought you might want to know i mentioned your blog in my last post :)
http://sharingourspaces.blogspot.com/2010/08/awareness.html
Thank you Paula, Castorgirl and Katie. I'm on vacation with spotty Wifi, so don't have much time. I'm having Web withdrawal!
@ Paul, I'm having web withdrawal too - no device for wifi and the slowest net connection in the world where I am. Plus a keyboard with no English lettering!! I'm hoping the withdrawal passes - for you, and me!
@ Castorgirl - I thought that too, about all the pain. I could relate to many of the images. I'm sorry everyone was hurting like this.
@CastorGirl
Really? That's really interesting--what's the equation?
Mine is a reference to Orwell's "1984" and the concept of brainwashing as I am coming to a point in therapy where the brainwashing of a lifetime of abuse is suddenly apparent, and so for the first time ever, I see that nothing is the way I thought or perceived it to be....
(Sorry I took so long to get back to you, I thought I was subscribed to this thread but I guess I wasn't.)
@Kerro: I will have broadband from where we are staying real soon! By hook or by crook. Just don't ask me how I got it!
@Jahda: I am very much interested in mathematics. Always have been. I should write about it soon. Usually mathematics for me has meant only good things; an escape from problems. Sorry, your association (and Castorgirl's) are not good ones.
@Jahda, the equation for me is 3 3s are 33. It's chanted over and over. I spoke to my T about this on Monday, and we think we may have found the cause, but am not sure. I do know that 3 is a very important number for parts of my system for various reasons.
I can see why the breaking of the equation/programming is so important... a pivotal point in your healing journey... but also quite scary. All of our past assumptions about reality and the truth suddenly shift or get turned on it's head.
Thank you for the explanation and please take care,
CG
@Castorgirl - Absolutely!! It's a major breakthrough and also extremely terrifying...
Wow, it must be disconcerting with that running through your head, but I'm so glad you are finding its source in therapy and working through it. I hope the journey through that part isn't too arduous (though I keep discovering that the most arduous ones are the only ones that really get to where we need to go to fully heal). Thanks for understand exactly what I meant CG!
Take Good Care!
jahda
@ Jahda - just wanted to say that I've been there, too. To that therapy space where you see the abuse for what it was and "nothing is the way I thought or perceived it to be". And you feel like you're left with nothing? Or have to create a new "whole" again? Yep, I've been there, still there in many respects. It's scary as hell, but also good, and empowering. Take care.
@Kerro - exactly! it's so intense, isn't it? kind of like all of the parts took the Red Pill and can suddenly see....
thanks so much for sharing Kerro. knowing others who have gone through or are going through this really helps to break the isolation.
please take good care,
jahda
@Kerro - exactly! It's so intense, isn't it? Kind of like all of the parts took the Red Pill and can suddenly see....
Thanks so much for sharing Kerro. Knowing others who have gone through or are going through this really helps to break the isolation.
Please take good care,
Jahda