Submitted for publication:
The focus is on the Mixed Media Art Community. There is no pay at this time, but you will receive a byline with your web address or contact info. This is an excellent way to get your work published.
What we want
1) Personal essays that deal with your art, your magnificent art life, art ethics, art community, or other art topics (600 words or less)
2) Interviews with art visionairies, indie crafters, or influences (600-1000 words)
3) News/Feature stories of artists doing something notable (400-1000 words)
4) Seasonal art content (if its winter think spring and upcoming holidays)
5) Fun DIY Projects with pictures (aproximately 300-600 word articles, 2-5 clear photos of the process and final projects.
My painting: Women Of The Pots
Living a Soulfully Authentic Life
A long time ago, I garnered great respect for the healing work of journaling. In my career, I became indelibly aware that there are no words for some things. I am a writer, and I innately knew a place to go where soul resides. In that right hemisphere of the brain is my spacious peace, serenity, grace, dignity and truth.
I have had, what some have said, was a life where Jesus wept. I exhibited all the signs of the Primal Wound (being taken from breast to the gnawing beast of being a “captured” child in the world of abandoned children. Wounding, prior to speech, are etched deep in the caverns of the psyche.
As a child, in a very closed community of secrets, I would create a fantasy. There was something about sitting at the side of a river, where my hero and comforter, my adoptive Grandfather would be fishing and babysitting me The hand and brain stimulus of working raw clay, delving into nature for ways to express myself, allowed for expression of other kinds; deep and meaningful, healing and healthy expressions. I am a senior citizen now, a bit of a Crone, a spiritual wannabe, and I still find that working with raw materials, reworking found objects, submerging my heart and soul into expressing my authentic Self, seems to keep me in a state of meditation and presence.
I spent twenty-three years in a career that involved retrieving troubled youth from troubled communities, in the far North ( mostly fly-in or semi-isolated communities). I developed programs for troubled youth and adults and Creative Expression was the vehicle for counseling-based education. I worked with tough cases, some encased in the Judicial System, and there was not one, in all my years, that I could not get to begin to express their deepest, authentic selves through their art. It opened channels that simple counseling or control could not. Many of those considered “hopeless cases” have gone on to be productive members of their communities, or at very least, the potential to be.
While I was sacrificing so very much in order to give Service to my people, I had a dream: One day I will retire at the ocean, eat lobster, publish my poetry, and do my art. Dreams do have a way of coming true if you are steadfast in finding ways to make those detours towards that dream, with grace, and humbleness. Today I do workshops, women’s circles, and find that I am disciplined in the hours that I do soul work. I spend so many hours in a day writing, so many hours doing art, and find that I am more spiritually attune to the Present and spiritual work than ever before. My age and life circumstances afford me this. I am no longer ‘healing’. Now I am deepening my understanding of how those things I saw as “wounds” were gifts and opportunities to help others find ways to express their deepest core.
I have kept an affirmation in mind that comes from a quote by Richard Hooker: I… (write, do art, etc.) “…for no other reason, but for this; that others may know I have not lived this life as if a dream.”
©Carol Desjarlais
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1 - 8 of 8
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Wonderfully put! May your days be blessed.
Charishma
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so wonderful
to see this success in our site, keep up the great communication theory
Linda -
How to find the words to express, at least to some simple degree, what emotions and feelings this evokes in me... difficult.
I have always believed in the power that art has- the expression or release of art, to reach and reveal the parts of us that are otherwise unreachable.
I find myself envious of your stage of life, though I shouldn't. I wish for the time to be able to discover the Authentic self- someone Im not acquainted with yet, but seek.
I find it interesting that you describe your self as a bit of a Crone- that jumped out at me.
The Crone- wisdom, repose, death, and endings- yet, in the circle of life, coming up on new beginnings, discovery.
I loved this piece, very inspirational.
K
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None of this came easily. I have lived a very focused couple of decades to get here, to be sure. It came with a great deal of work and two steps forward and three back betimes. I am one of the Sisters who is trying to retrieve some of the ancient meanings of such words as "Crone". Ty for your comments.
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No matter your original circumstances, what wounds were inflicted upon your burgeoning soul, you WOULD have found your way home through your magnificent arts, my brilliant Sister. Things have a way of working themselves out, with or without our "help". You had your path laid out before you from the beginning, Carol. Although there were some crooked steps, some long detours, some pauses along the way, you have met your journey well, Sweetie. I need not wish you luck, for you have made your own, my Dear Friend. You are Woman. You are Artiste. You ARE Scribe. 
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What nice things to say, Wanda. Yes, we are aware of when we have made a turn around a corner and the horizon looks a great deal more interesting. Ty always.
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The art and the words, so true to your beliefs; a search may take a lifetime, but makes the life time so worthwhile, fulfilling. This is truly inspirational. Thank you...PK
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oh yes, I am now at a place where I am grateful for the hard gifts...that counts for a lot.
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