Art and Healing: My Personal Journey
Juju Rootz: Art & Healing (chapter one)
“My Art is my Medicine.”
My journey- living as and becoming an artist has been a personal healing journey. It has been joyful but its also been so challenging and I am opening up to sharing some of my challenges, how I have over come them and my motivation in continuing to avidly pursue my passions in life. I have had an amazing life so far and I am truly grateful for my family and my experiences; all of which are intertwined with my artistic work.
In the last few years I have honed in on my interests and spent lots of time focused on painting, exploring and practicing tons of art mediums and constantly learning. I am a teacher, but eternally a student as I love to continue learning new things- on virtually every topic! Most importantly, I have learned how to focus better on my own interests and to remove distractions, erect some healthy boundaries: it has been a time of an amazing, hard, real and an authentic personal transformation. This has led to my fully submerging myself in practicing and becoming the master painter I strive to be.
My art truly has been my medicine; with it I am overcoming huge physical health obstacles- which limits my ability to do certain things for too long. In 2013 I became gravely ill and ultimately ended up having significant spinal surgery. It deeply altered my physical reality, my mind and my independence. Although it is several years back it still affects my physical endurance, stamina and at times is emotionally daunting. But I will tell you that I am not a quitter, I’ve learned a lot about myself and my own tenacity and it triggered new focuses of my energy. I am able to work around it; I am certainly better now at taking rests when I must and being kinder to myself about what I can and can not do and for how long. I have learned to truly appreciate the miracles in life and am eternally grateful to have gotten to a place where I can pursue what I love to do- paint!
I will keep posting on my Art & Healing Journey, think of it as a bit of a novella ! Many more chapters, stories and reflections!
In the meantime, if you want to learn more, link my About me page.
