I found this awesome quote about art from Googling:
“Art has the power to move people and evoke emotions that words can never do justice to. Whether we are looking at a painting, admiring a sculpture or listening to an opera, art makes us feel alive in ways we thought unimaginable.”
Feeling life seeping into one’s body if one is not well, or coursing into one’s body if one is quite well, means we are healing. Healing is ongoing, and we need to keep it ongoing in order to enjoy life and inspire others to enjoy life.
Two artists are teaming up to bring to Juneau a unique healing experience. One is me, a visual artist, and the other is Luke Weld, a musician.
At Gallery Walk this Dec. 6, I will show my paintings and Luke will play the crystal singing bowls. My paintings will be up on the wainscotting and the sound of the bowls will resonate throughout the sanctuary in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Luke will play for two hours continuously. People can come and go as they like, as it is not a concert, but an experience. They can talk, as that will not interfere with the resonant sound.
Singing bowls are relaxing. According to Google:
“Studies have shown that the singing bowl sound can produce physiological and psychological responses, reducing negative affect and increasing positive affect, as well as improving blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate.”
Luke plays piano for noonday services at Holy Trinity on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He improvises, and it sounds as if I am enveloped in space, space where different things are going on all at the same time, like in the actual universe.
I do outer space art and got the idea to ask Luke if he would like to play piano while I show my art. He said yes, but for our first collaboration wanted to play crystal singing bowls, as he had wanted to do for a long time.
Rainbow Foods will sponsor the event. Rainbow displays 50 of my paintings, so it is only natural. But there is more! The owner of Rainbow, David Ottoson, held a meditation event that I went to. I was entranced by the harmonious chanting. David belongs to a spiritual group called Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. MSIA is based on Christian precepts, with Buddhist and other spiritual input. I asked David if our event could include the chanting. He told me to ask our friend Angie Mendbayer. She was so excited about the idea and said she would lead chants and invite other groups who chant, also. Come join in or just bask in the magic!
I create my modern oil paintings with the intention of healing. In 1993, David said in the Empire:
I just love her paintings. I find them very healing. I like the colors she uses, and the way the colors and forms all come together. It’s a spiritual quality that’s hard to define.”
Why the paintings are healing is contained in what David said — “the way the colors and forms all come together.” People have told me it is relaxing to see how the forms work together.
My unique patterning came from watching my tropical fish. I noticed how relaxing it was for the eyes to move randomly, so I decided to make paintings in which the viewer’s eyes moved randomly. Twenty-five years later, I finally got it. Now, it is easy. This is how I define my kind of pattern: “An arrangement of forms, colors, lines and other compositional elements meant to be seen as a whole.”
To make the patterns clear, I outline the forms in yellow. The colors are simplified, so the forms can be complex. Each form is a pattern in itself. Each part of every form has a direction that has to fit into the whole. Every part of the painting is a pattern and has to fit into the pattern of the painting as a whole. This overall underlying structure makes the eye move randomly, thus allowing the viewer to relax.
Healing Space Art and Singing Bowls is presented by Juneau Artists’ Guild. JAG is what we call us.
• Page Bridges is a member of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. The event will be held there. Living and Growing is a weekly column written by different authors and submitted by local clergy and spiritual leaders. It appears every Saturday on the Juneau Empire’s Faith page.
