18 August 2019
Inkscapes
Background
The self, “who I am” is a beautiful and complex entity. “Who I am” is fluid, changing, growing and rich – hard to pin down to one description, or even a couple of definitions and categories. Therefore if I tell you that I am an artist, it is a scary and limiting thing, that I almost cannot agree to. I don’t sell my art works for a living, or do performances for entertainment. In general that is the popular definition of an artist “out there”.
I have taught many people for the past year that practising creativity is not the same as “being an artist”. Creativity is an energy, a way of being, a way to make sense and create order out of chaos, a human necessity of expressing your “self/Self” in the world.
Often the end-products – art pieces if you will – made during this flow of expression have a life of their own: it is work born from an alchemical process where medium and time interrelated with person, history, symbol and will, in an almost magical way (definitely not easily understood or described by logical left brain concepts). They want to be seen and witnessed, they want to tell their stories, they want to be heard. I often asked people on the workshop to ‘ask your poem if it wants to be heard’ before deciding to share a poem.
These inkscapes wants to be seen.
We tell ourselves different stories about ourselves, and today I want to share with you this story:
I have always made sense of my world through drawing, painting and creating… on the black board in my room, at my aunt’s art class once a week, and in the sand pit next to the washing line. Creating was my go-to for being balanced and staying sane in this rough journey of becoming a real human.
I pressed my nose against the art class window right through high school. The art teacher could not understand why I didn’t take art. Now I can: the only legitimate course of study from my cultural background was in science and maths – in which I was, thank goodness, good enough. Art! Was not a real pursuit for one’s life! But I kept drawing – even if it was only my own feet during boring exam preps. I kept visiting art galleries, supporting other artists. Until I bought Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way in 2000 – I remember well. After my first child was born. After I built up a career as a psychotherapist. I could reclaim my Inner artist, my creative side. I had the privilege to share these delightful principles with others over the past ten years.
Herewith the formal write-up describing Inkscapes for a prestigious art competition (the formal version!)
Eleen Polson Biography
Eleen Polson is a psychologist with specialisations in Expressive Arts Therapy. Art and psychological aspects of the creative process inform her personal and professional life. Expressive Arts Therapy focuses on combining different art forms to express emotions and experiences for healing and personal development. Eleen has personally experienced the healing power of art, as well as facilitated many therapeutic art processes for groups and individuals.
The meeting of souls in a relationship in different contexts are similar to the meeting of diverse creative expressions. The influences this connection of energies have on each other is explored in her work – both in art and therapy. Eleen’s passion is finding verbal and visual languages to express the complexities of unfolding processes of connection, so that conversations between people, between people and art, and about art in particular settings, can be deepened.
Synopsis of this work
Inkscape creations are miniature alcohol ink pigment experimentations on photographic paper where manipulation and careful yet carefree procedures test boundaries and possibilities. The images are then scanned and enlarged. In inkscape image making, magic happens when the medium, the surface, the artists’ effort, the timing and the light come together in unexpected yet satisfying ways. The effortlessness of this unpredictable process is part of the reward, as it is juxtaposed by the complexity of the image. The colours of these works reflect nuances of vulnerability when facing limits. Such moments are vividly captured here.
The imagination is peaked every time the viewer connects with the image and open-ended title. In naming what the viewer sees and expects, the underlying meaning-making framework is exposed and the subjective interpretation of life challenged.
It reminds me of the first inkblot tests once used by psychologists to evaluate a person’s inner world, and I invite viewers to participate and explore their own perceptions in relation to others by mentally filling in the blank.
Inkscapes
