Art: A Catalyst for Life • by Karen Grunberg

When I was little, I hung out with this group of kids who were my parents' friends' children. They were really mean to me and didn't really want me around. So, I've always had this idea that I didn't belong and people didn't like being around me. Even though, over the years, a lot happened to show me otherwise, I was just stuck with those ideas in my head.

Capturing the Shift
About two weeks ago, I found a box of photos from my childhood and teenage years. I looked at the photos over and over again and realized that I was smiling in all of them. Even laughing in some. I had people around me, with their arms on my shoulder. Suddenly it hit me that I was all wrong. I had belonged and I was loved. I had hundreds of photos to prove it. (I can’t really put into words the fundamental shift this caused.) So I grabbed a minibook I had, glued the photos all over it, and journaled all around it. I journaled for seven hours. I wanted to capture this moment of revelation and have something for my future self to revisit if I got delusional again. It was energizing and life-changing.

Creative Therapy
I wanted to couple that experience with my wish to create more often and to have more fun with creating, so I thought ... why not do a weekly challenge? Yes, I know there are thousands of them. But the idea of this one would be using art, scrapbooking, photography, or whatever your creative outlet is as a form of self-therapy. It doesn’t have to be revealing. It can be with colors, a specific technique, lots of journaling, or very few words. It can be art journaling. It can be anything you want as long as it’s therapeutic to you. Creative therapy.

My hope was to have a team of scrappers and mixed-media artists — many of us, so that we don’t all have to do one each week. Since this is emotional at the core, I want to make sure it’s authentic.

I hope you’re as excited about this idea as we are. I am honored and humbled to be in the company of these amazing artists and I hope that their work will inspire you as much as it awes me.

I don’t want to call this a challenge site since challenge and creative therapy don’t go together in my opinion. So, we’re going to call them catalysts, since our goal is for the work to be the catalyst for our life and a catalyst for you to feel inspired to create your own piece of creative therapy.

To learn more about Karen Grunberg, visit karenika.com or creativetherapy.wordpress.com. 

Comments

[Connie]

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea!! You are brilliant--and what a great joy to find you and your site here!!

Plus, what an honor to share the guest curatorship with you this week.

Big hugs,
Connie

[Ellen]

What a wonderful idea; I love how your view shifted when you
realized your vision had been clouded! Your adjusted view, shifted your soul! I am so happy this happened for you and now you are shifting views, so other people can grow and be open to their butterfly moments! We all need catalysts to move us forward in life! Pain can cause us to be stuck! Your work is inspirational! Thanks for sharing your Art Saves Story~

[Kelly]

Karen, I love your idea of creative therapy being more of a catalyst than a challenge. A challenge is often seen as something to overcome and then move on from. But I see a catalyst as something that can start you on a path to great things, opening up doors. Great idea!

[linda]

Fabulous idea...I love the positivity you have. Thanks for sharing and I'm definitely going to follow creative therapy catalysts - that's a major positive in art itself...what it does for us and our souls :)

[melody ross]

Karen...this is so beautiful. Thank you for being such a beautiful, giving, wonderful, smart and benevolent soul. I am so proud to know you and to call you a friend. xoxo

[Shelley Haganman]

Karen, thank you for having the vision and executing that vision in Creative Therapy! You are such a positive, nurturing soul! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this incredible group!