Lately, we have been challenged with the juncture of our art and our life. Our four year old son mr. c was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, which has caused us to rearrange our artistic schedule and look at life with wonder. This is the cause of our delay in the parabolic b.a.l.m gathering. If you would like to find out more about his situation, we welcome you to visit his site. We process each day in the hospital and at home and these unfamiliar and uninvited happenings in expressions of all sorts — words, emotions, prayers, sketches, questions of existence and connectedness. D is collecting medical paraphenalia to make a sculpture about this ordeal. He is also involved in helping others produce their work and running our business. S is encouraged in her pursuit of affirming people even in or especially in seemingly hopeless situations through painting and otherwise. For her, sometimes the art is a life of caring for our son and the family, enjoying the beauty of time together, seeing beauty in others, and other times it is creating a painting. She is gathering the radiology scans right now, and doing artwork with little C as part of his therapy. She appreciates clients’ understanding about time frames on portraits she is finishing.
We have been affirmed in so many ways from so many people during this passage. There is beauty to be found in and on the other side of the suffering because of the discoveries it brings. About life, love and goodness. While there is not as much time for us to sculpt and paint right now, we are seeing and creating artistically. We are being formed by these experiences.
There is so much artwork around the CMH and RMH that has enriched our lives and given us comfort, that we wanted to document and share a few pieces. Without it our days would seem a little bleaker, like a world without color or variety or hope. We love the personalities which are expressed and the benefits we have received from them sharing their creativity with us. We thank Children’s Mercy Hospital for investing and presenting this artwork, as well as the Ronald McDonald house and all of the respective donors. We are constantly learning about the connections there are between creativity and healing. Mr. C benefits from music therapy times in CMH and times making crafts of all sorts. Engaging in creativity seems to comfort, soothe, mirror, occupy, divert, give expression to emotions and draw out hope and life. It is a productive way of bringing a tangible beauty to raw pain and emotions and engage with others. We are exploring these parts of artistic expression as well, personally, and with others. We have also found a couple outlets for artists or people who want to use art for healing.
We want to connect with all of you and update those of you we have not spoken with personally about this situation. We plan to have gatherings for artists, still, and want to hear from you about what you are working on, going through, excited about and how that influences your work as well. Please contact us with ideas or about hosting the next gathering. We appreciate those of you who linked Mr. C’s website on yours, so that more people will know the situation that he is in.
b.a.l.m 