Expressive Arts Carnival No. 8: Your Truth

Welcome to the February 2011 edition of the Expressive Arts Carnival. This month's theme, see announcement, was to "create an image of your truth."

It is my policy to not comment on art in the Carnival itself, as I feel as though it is not my place to put words to others' art, especially healing art. This is why it is the words of the artists themselves talking about their entries. But certainly if discussions ensue in the comments, I am happy to talk about the art in any way that's appropriate and encourage others to do so.

Here are the entries in the order received. As usual, if there is a blog post with more details, the artist's name will have a link to it.

Entry 1: Kerro

Kerro wrote: "This is the place I went to when my life started 'falling apart'. It's the place where I started uncovering my 'truth' - peeling back the layers on my onion of abuse. It's also the place where I started discovering who I am, and the place where I started healing. I love this place because of its physical beauty, but also because of what it represents to me. It is my spiritual home."

Entry 2: Katie

Katie wrote: "The images I chose to make this collage represent truth for me in a number of ways. How scary it can be to speak the truth. The power of writing. Connecting with the truth as an ongoing process. My tendency towards black and white thinking and my need to step back and see the bigger picture. The truth in my dreams. The importance of emotional truth and confronting pain. The light that each of us has to share in this world, and the power of each person to survive and even flourish no matter our circumstances. Finally, I thought that it would be most truthful of me to choose an actual photo from my life to incorporate in this piece, so the central photo is one I took of an Oklahoma road. As driving along the country roads is something that brings me peace and helps me feel connected."

Entry 3: Castorgirl

Castorgirl titled this piece "What's my Truth?" and wrote: "The upper part of the collage represents how each of us is inundated with messages about what is true from those around us.  It can feel like you're being buffeted in a storm.  The reflected picture underneath represents what is possible when we can hold onto our truth.  The figure isn't happy, but there is a sense of reality about her reactions.  What is the truth?  I still don't know.  But it doesn't come from the external messages, it comes from within."

Entry 4: Kylie

Kylie wrote: "Truth is largely influenced by perspective, it's probably why two eye-witnesses will never give the exact same story. Each person sees things a little differently. The way a person is feeling a the time can change it too."

Entry 5: Tracy

Tracy wrote: "The DID Awareness Ribbon that came about through an online group Paul was involved in a couple years ago means a lot to me.  The pieces are patchworked together.  I see this as my parts eventually joining together and having communication amongst themselves.  When I was facing the prospect of losing my therapist, I used the ribbon as the inspiration for a quilt.  The statement I gave my therapist was, "The DID Awareness Ribbon Quilt.  Up close it's rough, raw edges doesn't look all that good.  From a distance, it looks much better.  A person with DID is like the quilt, seems fine to outsiders, but the closer you get to that person, the more you see their struggles and difficulties."  My truth is that others can't see or appreciate the depth of my struggles.  Those close to me only see the tip of the iceberg.  A few of my parts really enjoy sewing.   Making the quilt, my first, was cathartic.  I could see that I would get to the point of communication.  That each part overlapped others and that really all my parts were, deep down, connected in some way.  I am working to learn how all my parts relate to me and how we are all connected."

Entry 6: Thesamesky

Thesamesky wrote: "I wasn't going to enter anything this time round because I wasn't sure that I could come up with anything on truth, but when you sent a reminder I thought about the piece I did just recently and I suppose in a way it is portraying my truth because it is about beginning to take hold of a new position, believing that I'm good enough and relating differently to others (my therapist in particular)."

Entry 7: OneSurvivor

OneSurvivor wrote: "My Truth 1 (I did this first) and My Truth 2 (I did this second). I am not sure how to explain them. It is what came to mind as I thought about my life. I know there is significance to the colors, but, right now... it feels very private... like something I need to hold in my heart for a while."

Entry 8: Paul

I wrote: "This is about people helping me as well as me helping others and myself. The truth part of it is that 'I'm good'."

Entry 9: Kathleen

Kathleen titled this piece "Violations of Truth" and wrote: "In this piece I was thinking about violations of truth-political truths social truths personal truths; I immediately thought about the phrase 'the elephant in the room' that is so large and no one at all is willing to acknowledge it.  There were so many people willing to actively look away and denouce my truth about violations against me even when it was so actively and publically displayed. It is so sad/painful for me personally and yet so pervasive across cultures and time and played out on grand stages in front of masses of people. I am now more equipped to hold my own truth and even my adolecent parts are learning to do the same."

Entry 10: Wantstorun

Wantstorun wrote: "The jumbled letters of truth represent how the concept of 'truth' is confusing to me; I have many questions surrounding truth.  But 'hurt' is spelled out from the mixed up letters of hidden 'truth.'"

Entry 12: ClinicallyClueless

ClinicallyClueless submitted a YouTube video and wrote: "This is a pictorial personal description of the truth of my childhood of abuse and trauma. I have been and am currently in therapy to address these issues. If you work hard in therapy, find a good match and don't give up, you can get better. Hang in there. Thank you for viewing my slideshow. Christian music is added as I have always, no matter what felt God's hand on my life."

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.