The Healing Power of Art
“Trauma comes to all of us sooner or later. Trauma is a part of life…..
And when it comes — when and not if —
we can learn from it, heal from it, and move through it”.
~ Dr. James S. Gordon
I have been processing and trying to heal a recent traumatic experience by drawing, drawing, and drawing some more. The 9” x 12” drawings/sketches you see in this gallery on my website were spontaneously created during a three-month span of time starting in January 2023. I could not stop making them.
12 of 51 drawings from the Art + Trauma Series - see the entire gallery here.
Little did I know that when I started the drawings, I was simultaneously probing deeply into my unconscious by engaging in using the healing power of art. The image-making also helped to put the trauma on paper and at the same time pointed me in the direction of ways to create hopeful scenarios for the future. As I slowly created page after page of each of these pen and ink drawings, I felt they brought light to my grief and pain. Each drawn line embodied a thought, a memory, and much hope. The meditative aspects of making this type of art soothed me. The last drawing I did emerged as a mandala called “Grace”.
“Grace”, last drawing in the Art and Trauma Series.
Parallel with using art to help process, I devoted many hours to learning about grief, pain, trauma, PTSD, and the numerous connections that exist between the mind and body. In this regard, I unhesitatingly recommend the newly released and helpful book “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, in which they scientifically illustrate the world of neuroaesthetics with brilliance and experience. Sometimes words are challenging to find when describing PTSD flashes or a traumatic incident, but the act of making art automatically charges many areas in the brain and helps facilitate the processing of painful trauma according to Ross, Magsamen and also Dr. Jim S. Gordon.
Please keep in mind that drawing is not the only art making that can help. Music, theater, sculpture, dance can all be transformative.
Until next time…
Mary Lou
Art Tip:
I made every drawing the same size and just let the lines flow where they wanted to go. I used a simple Faber Castell artist black pen on watercolor paper to create these 9” x 12” drawings.
Each design evolved as it was being created. Each line seemed to react to the previous one and the next arched forward in a subtle new direction.
Please, please do all in your power to reintroduce the teaching of the arts in schools. Our children are missing critical opportunities to create pathways for experiencing full and vital living.
Where I am finding inspiration:
Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
The Myth of Normal by Dr. Gabor Mate
Altar to an Erupting Sun by Chuck Collins
Craftsmanship Quarterly by Todd Oppenheimer
Dr. James S. Gordon, Founder and Director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine
Wabi Inspirations by Axel Vervoordt
Flores del Camino, Retreat Center on the Camino de Santiago, Spain