Art for Healing

My doodle art will be on exhibit for another two months. (It's been up for two months already.)

These are just delightful and uplifting. 🙂

My doodle art will be on exhibit for another two months. (It's been up for two months already.)

Ooooo I love the brightness and cheeriness of your art!! It’s what we all need right now. Thank you for sharing

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.

Absolutely beautiful painting ! I though it was a printed out photo at first.

I posted the comment about art for healing a long time ago. More importantly, I lived it. When my husband's health was failing and I was his caregiving, I started doodling to relieve stress. Before I began my caregiving tasks, I doodled for 15-20 minutes. This relaxed me and prepared me for the day. When I was quarantined for testing positive for Covid (I never developed any symptoms) I continued to doodle. This led to a book about doodling to express grief. After my husband died I continued to doodle. I added watercolor to the doodles and was thrilled with the results. I turned my husband's bedroom, really a hospital room and place of sadness, into my art studio. Every wall is lined with framed doodle art. Twenty-three of my pictures are currently on exhibit. I 've given grief doodle art talks to the public health, my retirement community, and on Zoom for The Compassionate Friends, an organization for those who have suffered the loss of a child. In August I'm giving two workshops at The Compassionate Friends National Conference, "Grief Doodling: A Snapshot of Your Grief Journey" and "Affirmation Writing: A Forward Step on the Healing Path." Life is filled with surprises and one of the greatest surprises of my life is becoming a doodle artist. I am blessed.