Art: The Meteoric Journey • by Madelyn Mulvaney

I am an artist and believe me, I have no choice in this matter. All that I conceive with love, imagination, and a little mystery — whether it be a Polaroid photograph, a poem, or a small film — comes from a vast heart and soul that feels life in the most passionate, keen, sensitive, way possible. When infused with the dramatic and soaring beauty of life, I can ride on a push of wind to infinity and beyond in this swirling momentum, smiling and weeping all at once for the sheer ecstasy of it all.

But given the ying/yang duality of the very nature of all things, this also means there will be deep sadness, longing, and loss to temper those very mountainous heights. I am tenderly wired to feel all things and I have always moved through the depths of angst and sorrow wholly alone, and as a result, often produced my most beautiful and achingly raw works surrendering with faith to such a meteoric journey.

I am growing things in this dark and light work, exploring my emotional sensitivity through my art and ultimately my connection to our world, releasing my feelings when the time is ripe, and capturing the essence of this self exploration and deep tender growth. When I finally “release” my journey through my art to the light of the world I feel so grateful to have the means to express myself genuinely. This heals and enlightens my soul as I emote angry, joyful, honest experiences even as the dust settles, bringing such inner peace and lightness of being.

The Quest
As I traveled along the path of an artist, deep inside I yearned for something more. I yearned to gift a piece of my experience — I yearned to hand something beautiful down to the next generation and I was determined to keep my heart open to this quest.

One day I was asked to participate in an interview for my friend Liz, where she asked me nine questions and I was invited to answer in images. I found the interview profoundly liberating and suddenly had an aha moment. What if I asked pre-teens seven quietly introspective questions designed to help them navigate their innermost feelings and prompted them to answer with one simple image? What if I shared with them ways to express themselves in photography, even when some of those things might be secret things that longed to have just a little light shed on them? From this wellspring of a desire to share, unearth, and illuminate, my project “Open to Exposure” was born.

The Gift
This year all my freshly minted promises to myself came true when I stepped into a classroom of highly artistic and open-hearted grade sevens to share my “Open to Exposure” project with them. Exploring seven provocative questions together, the children awakened to the joys of self-expression and awareness through photography, discovering a new way to tap into and release personal feelings they had kept bottled up inside. I was deeply overwhelmed with the outpouring of truth and emotional connections my students made as they expressed themselves freely through their art — indescribably magnificent! I found myself watching my students see things in a different way than I see them. And suddenly, I could see them that way, too.

Deeply humbled by their willingness to express themselves so genuinely, I was inspired to go even further with my own art, and in the end it was I who was truly blessed and gifted with these new little souls in my life. The entire experience was fierce, luminous, and profoundly empowering for all of us, and I felt so honored to have created something that was now looking back at me with a life of its own.

Art saves, heals, ignites. Three cheers for art I say!

To learn more about Madelyn Mulvaney, visit persistingstars.blogspot.com. To learn more about her interview with her friend Liz, visit bepresentbehere.blogspot.com/2009/04/nine-with-madelyn-mulvaney.html.

Comments

[Brooke]

exquisitely written with haikus hiding in her words ~ what a wonderful title for a wonderful idea; I would love to see the student's images or take a course like this :)

www.alwaystimefortea-brooke.blogspot.com

[Christine]

You are a true poet,artist,photographer and now teacher(it takes a special someone to understand that age group~one who is sensitive and never lost touch with the youth that resides inside). Your work is incredibly beautiful and eloquent~the moments you capture on film reflect on the beauty of this life~
:)