A Recovery Blog

This blog is about my continuing recovery from severe mental illness and addiction. I celebrate this recovery by continuing to write, by sharing my music and artwork and by exploring Buddhist and 12 Step ideas and concepts. I claim that the yin/yang symbol is representative of all of us because I have found that even in the midst of acute psychosis there is still sense, method and even a kind of balance. We are more resilient than we think. We can cross beyond the edge of the sane world and return to tell the tale. A deeper kind of balance takes hold when we get honest, when we reach out for help, when we tell our stories.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Some Recent Artwork































Just got some new markers and am trying to tempt myself back towards the visual arts.  These images are pretty sloppy because I couldn't get the right white balance in my photo editing program (which is very simplistic and all I know how to use...sort of).  And so white has turned into purple!  Nonetheless, you can get a feel for what I've been working on the last couple of days.  It's all about experimental play and yet, in some ways, it's more serious because I am stopping, assessing, making a new mark all very gradually.  Invariably, I'm scared to make the very first mark.  Scared because I don't have a working plan of action, so then I jump into it.  All I know is that I want to vary the marks on the page and work intuitively.

2 comments:

Feminist Voice with Disabilities said...

Interesting works, Kate! I think you utilizing your talents is very important for your health and stability. I'm glad you're doing that.

Karen May Sorensen said...

How brave to use permanent markers! I'm so used to pencil and erase.

The closest I ever got to making an artwork out of permanent markers was drawing with colored pencil when I was in the hospital and there was no other medium available. I didn't choose to erase the colored pencil. Still have one circus work that I did while on a psychiatric unit.

Funny how you can be limited in making art by fear. Award medal to you for overcoming your fear!

Keep up the good work, love your visual creativity.

All my love,
Karen