How art can change your life

 

Here's a picture of me with my new painting -- "Flying Fish."

I purchased this painting, created by a 16 year-old boy named Jordan, at "On the Veranda", the annual art show and benefit for the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County.  The CAC provides services for sexually abused children - one of which is a mentoring program using art in healing.

I met the young artist at the show – a likeable, fresh-faced, confident young man. I am not privy to his story, but knew that some tragedy in his life had brought him there.

 I had heard about “Flying Fish” a couple of weeks ago on the CAC blog, “Change is Possible . . . Healing Through Art.”  Michelle Wilson, author of the blog and the CAC Development Director, described it this way: “Fish flying through the air, defying gravity, defying the “rules” of order and expected behavior.”

She quoted Jordan as saying, “They are free. They are free to do whatever they want. You don’t expect them to fly, but they are free.”

Michelle also wrote: “I hope whoever ends up with that on a wall at home can feel some of the freedom that comes with the painting,and that the buyer sends some of the energy back to the young artist who is, like all of us, trying to find the freedom to fly himself, beyond self-imposed and society-imposed and abuse-imposed restrictions and expectations.”

Wow.

I had been having trouble sleeping, tossing and turning, replaying the same dream - plagued with grueling, but garden-variety adult issues like work, bills, relationships and children.

Sight unseen I knew I wanted this painting.

I yearned for a little bit of freedom.

 As I drove home that night with “Flying Fish” in the backseat, I laughed at myself and thought, “This is a lot to ask of a painting!”

The next morning I rose and I went about my business not thinking of the painting. That afternoon, however, I had a life changing epiphany – one of those psychic shifts that only come to me once every few years.

When I returned home and saw the painting, I looked at it curiously and said to myself, "I wonder???  Could this painting have had something to do with this?”

In that moment I decided to believe that this was true – and why not?

I decided to believe that energy can be transmitted through a painting

I decided to believe that if a young boy can fly free with art and believe in the unexpected -- then I could too.

I decided (once again) to believe in the magic of art.

This painting now hangs over my bed.

Maybe art can save the world – and why not?