Art, Healing, Harmony and Happiness
Over my working lifetime, I have moved from working in floral shops to real estate and appraising, waitress, teaching art classes and being a couch to artists to work with non-profit's and now working in the medical field.
I realized long ago that ( suppose I always knew this but did not have my attention on it) art is really more than a pretty picture or awesome composition.
I recently reflected on this and realized that in my lifetime as an artist my art has helped heal people and bring them harmony and happiness.
The first experience was at my Senior thesis show at the Philadelphia College of Art in 1978. One of my paintings was hanging in the window that faced the Academy of Performing Arts. At one of those concerts a Dentist attended. Upon leaving he was able to view my painting hanging on the first floor of the gallery in the college. It was in a window next to the steps; the front entrance of the Academy. The next day he came to the college to purchase the painting. That was awesome. I was a young artist and here a complete stranger wanted my art work! The image was from a sketch I did of inside the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in New York.
Shortly after graduating, my cousin asked me to send a painting over to the hospital she worked at. So I did. It was an image of looking up at the sky and down to the earth at the same time. A few months went by and one day she called me and said that one of the surgeons would sit in front of it before he did surgery. When he left the Hospital he purchased that painting. I was happy for him and for me that I was able to offer this image to the world and it made a difference in someones' life.
I have created many paintings over the past 49 years that I have been drawing or painting.
I love to hear when a painting makes a difference. More recently, 2012, I had won first in Oil at an exhibition in Chatham, MA for a painting of two women talking. It is called "The Talk". You can see it in my Storytelling Collection. A group of Alzheimer patients had come to the Gallery to talk about the artwork. My painting was selected as the topic to create an avenue for the clients to conjure up memories and to have a conversation. It was an ah-hah moment for me. My own mother had Alzheimer's at the time and I knew that images helped with her memories. I actually talked to my Grandmother's spirit when I was making the painting so she could help guide me.
All my experiences have brought me to pursue this new approach to bringing my art to the world and what I have to offer. As art for health, harmony & happiness. I am positive that art is essential for our well-being.
More to come.
To our health and happiness,
Mary Carroll
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