Art and the Subconscious

I feel blessed that I have the most amazing therapist in the entire world; she practices Jungian psychotherapy, and is very well versed in EMDR, a therapy that helps process traumas that cause PTSD.

I have been in therapy on and off for years. The damages of my childhood and first marriage were far reaching and insidious in how it has affected my ability to love, trust, and have any self esteem.

Most people would never see that in me; I have learned how to go deep and hide it well. But from time to time things bring me right back there, and it is proof that I have much to unlock and set free. I work hard in my search for peace and spirituality (not to be confused with religion) in my life.

In my studio, after a particularly intense session, I came home and finished this piece. I was tempted to leave it without the NO....but then all it would have been was a pretty mixed media piece, and that was not my goal. I wanted to make a statement. I wanted to mix the pretty with the ugly.

NO you can't touch me.
NO you can't hit me.
NO, I am worth more than that.

I am learning to say NO.

This piece certainly lets me say it NOW.

Peg says much of my artwork springs from the unconscious/subconscious, much like surrealism, and I have to agree. Someday I will have a show, and it will tell a story about all of these things. The Illustrated Secret Life of P.A., or the art of letting go.....

Patti