Embodied Art Meditation

#47 Leaf Body Landscape

This drawing was made on April 13, 2020. It depicted my body as abstract landscape. It felt healing, but I had no idea that the plant forms symbolized organs. Months later, after making a drawing that released emotion, a benign liver cyst that protruded from my abdomen dramatically shrunk in size. I realized then, that many drawings including this one, had been revealing a gradual progression of liver healing.

As I return to this image now, a year later; I realize that the pale green form symbolizes my lungs, and the small pinkish one my heart. This drawing, with its felt sense of organs, beckons me into an embodied meditation. I drop my consciousness down into my body, and settle it among my organs. I hold them with love. Memories and emotions surface. Instead of sharing the insights I received, I hope to inspire you to sink into your own. Perhaps, you may begin with just one organ. Or you may receive embodied healing from some different artwork; your own or that of another.

I am linking to three artists, whose work inspires a consistency of embodied meditation. My experience probably differs from that of the artist, and from your own felt sense. I offer these brief felt impressions of their work, simply to inspire meaningful exchange on an embodied experience of art and art making.

@writerformerlyknownas
Cristina's work reminds me of rap music or African drumming. Her art enters my body in rhythmic pulses and waves. My body can't help but unravel and sway to her bold and colorful shapes. The healing feels like an improvised jazz rift, as each series of marks spontaneously and freely passes through me.

@clairewallworkart
Claire's pieces draw me into quiet stillness. My body feels enveloped by enormous soft petals. Her forms, and my body as a whole, gently and almost imperceptibly expand and contract. Being breathed. I feel comforted and soothed by these slow pulsations.

@liz_akril
Elizaveta's artwork offers healing like being in and feeling the elements of nature. For example, in her recent piece Along the Shore I feel the fish and water flowing back to the ocean, like waves of currents, weaving up and through my body.

Click here to view the post on Instagram and read the comments there.

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