Art for Healing

@gingerw Totally understand about the baked goods caution. At your request I am attaching the watercolor "If wishes were horses beggars would ride". this painting is an older one (2013). It is 19.5" x 21". Have you finished with your rock garden? I did get some flowers going in containers. Not as many this year. It will suffice and helps me to enjoy my morning coffee even more.
I have been doing a lot of creating and also going on daily walks for a break from the creative process and myself. I have these episodes of getting on my own nerves. There are several sweet pea vines blooming in the field across the way. Smells divine. I picked a bouquet to bring home.
Hey, even chopping veggies can be an art!! I am encouraged and inspired by the many ways others here are being creative.

@helenfrances Pottery, painting
Ginger

@parus This is absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sharing. Truly a meaningful picture.
I can so relate to your comment of "getting on my own nerves".
Here is the Seger pile [in honor of Bob Seger and "Like a Rock"]. Just the cement edging to do around it. As I was toting the stones from corners of the yard, my mind went to the concept of moving heavy burdens to a central point and seeing that they all fit together, in their differences, and it's okay.
Ginger

Great analogy.
I am thinking of another quote when I look at this:
The yolk is heavy but the burden is light.
( heavy work to place the rocks, but the yolk is light when you see the results?”
Do I have that right?

@gingerw Totally understand about the baked goods caution. At your request I am attaching the watercolor "If wishes were horses beggars would ride". this painting is an older one (2013). It is 19.5" x 21". Have you finished with your rock garden? I did get some flowers going in containers. Not as many this year. It will suffice and helps me to enjoy my morning coffee even more.
I have been doing a lot of creating and also going on daily walks for a break from the creative process and myself. I have these episodes of getting on my own nerves. There are several sweet pea vines blooming in the field across the way. Smells divine. I picked a bouquet to bring home.
Hey, even chopping veggies can be an art!! I am encouraged and inspired by the many ways others here are being creative.

@gingerw Totally understand about the baked goods caution. At your request I am attaching the watercolor "If wishes were horses beggars would ride". this painting is an older one (2013). It is 19.5" x 21". Have you finished with your rock garden? I did get some flowers going in containers. Not as many this year. It will suffice and helps me to enjoy my morning coffee even more.
I have been doing a lot of creating and also going on daily walks for a break from the creative process and myself. I have these episodes of getting on my own nerves. There are several sweet pea vines blooming in the field across the way. Smells divine. I picked a bouquet to bring home.
Hey, even chopping veggies can be an art!! I am encouraged and inspired by the many ways others here are being creative.

Sometimes words are just not enough to say thank you. I am a fine artist. For a couple years, I had been unable to control my brushes and was in constant pain because of spinal cord compression in my neck. I stopped painting because I couldn't produce the quality of work that I expected. I was getting worse and couldn't find a surgeon to help me until I came to Mayo Clinic and met Dr. Jeremy Fogelson. As the days drew closer to my surgery, I had to find a way to be confident and calm, so I used sketching and listening to music to relax. I had been drawing pencil sketches of Dr. Fogelson as my own art therapy to help me on my journey. It helped me get to know him in my own way. I did other things to confront my fears as well, but I always returned to art and music when I needed to escape for awhile. I was calm on my surgery day and everything I did to prepare myself worked like a charm. While I was recovering, I wanted to paint again and to create something for my surgeon. Prior to my surgery, I was loosing what I cherished most, and my surgeon returned that gift to me.

I called his nurse and we arranged for my followup appointment to be on his surgery day, so I could get photos of him in his scrubs. He enjoyed posing for my camera in the exam room for a few minutes and even made me laugh. I had to work out how to match the photos of him with my photos of the Plummer building to make it look believable. I put the history of Mayo behind him with the beautiful carved doors of the historic building, and that was a challenge to draw and paint them in accurate detail.

It took about a month to create this watercolor painting, and I would have to take breaks and lay down to rest when my muscles fatigued. At my one year followup, I hid the finished painting behind the curtain in the exam room until we finished the exam part of the appointment, and then Dr. Fogelson saw this for the first time. It was a complete surprise to him and he loved it. I really painted this for both of us... to say thank you when words were not enough, and to challenge myself to see if I could do it since it had been so long since I had been able to paint. I'm honored to know that he will enjoy this for years to come. I makes me feel good to be able to do this for someone who gave me back the ability to do the job, and knowing how much it meant to him is priceless.

Art has healing power, and creating art takes that one step further for me. I told Dr. Fogelson that there was an emotional side to healing and recovery, and for me that was to overcome the fears that had help me back in my life. Facing major surgery has a way of bringing all of that into focus. This was truly life changing for me in many ways. All of my experiences at Mayo, and my courage are all in that painting. It also represents the talent, the kindness and compassion of my surgeon. At Mayo, medicine is an art. It's also true that art is medicine.

I have an update to share. When I painted this portrait for Dr. Fogelson, I recorded a video of the creation of this painting. Not everyone shares my passion for watching paint dry... or has that much time because this painting took a month to complete, so I created a multi-camera time lapse version that shows almost all of my process. It made sense to post it as a reply to my post with the images of the painting. It is 39 minutes and set to music. Here is the link. Enjoy!

With gratitude ~ Jennifer Hunter

Just remarkable, @jenniferhunter. I appreciate you sharing this with us. It was (and is) a genuinely wonderful way that you showed your thankfulness!