My Life Took A Sharp Right Turn

by Laurie Maves ART

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Dimensions

12.000 x 9.000 inches

Title

My Life Took A Sharp Right Turn

Artist

Laurie Maves ART

Medium

Painting - Mixed Media On Paper

Description

From Laurie Maves Circles and Abstracts Series

As an artist, creating paintings that are healing in nature is something I have been fascinated with ever since I began my journey studying the discipline of art therapy over 2 decades ago. Even though my most influential artists were representational ones like Frida Kahlo and Van Gogh, I was more drawn to the reasons why they painted: to exorcise suffering, and to give voice to their pain. The therapeutic aspects of creation were more important than possibly representing a certain person, place or thing. The act of painting was the expression of feeling, an experience of healing.

In 2011 my life experienced a much-needed makeover, when I met the man that I would later marry. His inspirational story of survival and resiliency gave me new hope about my own life, which I had been failing at desperately trying to control. As a two-time cancer survivor, and an occasional motivational speaker about overcoming his illness and life�s challenges, he would talk about the common bond that every cancer patient strives for: creating healthy cells in one�s body. My new love and his messages became my muse as I was inspired to paint images of healthy blood cells. �Love inside my cells,� �the light shines from within our cells,� �we find the love we need to heal,� were just a few of the messages conveyed about healing that I would write into the compositions. The images evolved from representational cellular structures to abstracted shapes and circles. My ultimate goal as an artist, my dream, was to make artwork that would function as possible healing imagery. I created an ongoing series of circle paintings always including the healing and loving messages written somewhere the works.

Historically I had been a representational painter. I made paintings about landscapes, figures and flowers. I found a great deal of control and mastery in producing a final preconceived image. On the other hand, throughout my entire artistic career, I had been afraid to paint abstracts. After a great deal of introspection, I realized I had been trying to control so much around me, I wanted everything to turn out perfectly to some preconceived notion of how I was supposed to be living my life. I had failed to live by my intuition, and in the process had almost lost my way. As I let go of control of the painting process and relied on a more intuitive approached to my canvases, images and phrases began to speak through me. My hand was the translator for my experiences and my own personal healing began to advance. My paintings became genuine experiences of love, hope and trust. Not knowing how the paintings would end up, and letting go of control was parallel to allowing my life to live me, allowing my life to evolve in its most perfect version, even if it included suffering and loss.

I am now allowing my paintings to be painted by my materials, and not consciously by my hand, in a way that gives up control, planning and destination. It�s almost a spiritual experience when I engage with my tools. I �listen� to my paints and they call out to me which one to use. I listen to the canvas, as it speaks words and phrases that want to be written down, captured, and honored in a tangible manner. Now I am most comfortable with the abstract process, and find that my life is evolving in a most precious and intuitive way. Letting go of most of that control has been one of the most freeing experiences in my life.

Uploaded

April 11th, 2016

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