Withdrawal

This afternoon was my last art class of the session (I have to wait 2 whole months for the next one) and I am officially in withdrawal. This is the art therapy class I've been taking for a couple years now at the Wellness Community. We were all talking at the end of class about how special our time is while there. It's the place where we can leave the rest of our lives outside the door for a few hours. It's the place that often people who are having a rough day, maybe got some bad news, are tired from treatments, or whatever, still manage to find their way to. It's my place to let go.

I'm a little bit of a control freak (okay, the people who know me well are laughing real hard right now at what they likely feel is an understatement). I'm probably better at letting go now than I was when I was younger, but the impulses are still there and it takes a real conscious effort on my part to let go. When I'm in this art class I find I feel the complete opposite. When I am working on a piece I am really in the moment, just letting it go wherever it takes me. In fact if I have to think too hard about what I'm doing I get anxious. There's no right or wrong, just what feels right at the moment and looks right to my eye at that moment. It's the antithesis of art school which pretty much immobilized me by the time I finished graduate school. Too many voices in my head telling me that this or that was bad before I even snapped the shutter or put the pencil to paper. This art class isn't even about "art" really, it's about expression, play and mindfulness.

Here's another "thrown on the dining room" table photograph of the piece I did today, curled up edges and all. It's a collage made from watercolor crayon, paper and tissue paper.