Friday, February 24, 2012

Art as Therapy

Hello friends and readers.  Just a quick post to tell you that in attempting to fill my mind with things other than my miseries, I started a new blog this week.  Go to a Museum and Call Me in the Morning.  The title borrows the old doctor's cliche and was inspired by my recent first visit to my therapist in five or more years.  While she doesn't prescribe anything except self-awareness, I prescribed for myself a visit to The Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, after my session with her. It helped and it inspired.

I have so, so many photographs I've taken at various museums and galleries, both locally and abroad (though they are much stricter in Europe), I thought it would be a good thing to revisit those experiences by placing whatever photographs I've been able to garner and perhaps also find images on online of the works I was not allowed to photograph in London, Switzerland, Spain and Netherlands. And hopefully one day Paris, Italy and...who knows...

A huge, loving thanks to those friends and readers who left such kind and generous comments on my blog birthday/depression post. It really did help to write it, though in the re-reading, combining those two things, as Linda mentioned, was quite a juxtaposition!  It almost seems a bit bipolar, which classically I am not but as anyone who has experienced mood swings is aware, those highs and lows can, at times, appear very close to one-another in times like these.  I am making a strong effort to try to find joy and peace in moments, instead of wishing to feel it all of the time.



I leave you with a photograph I took on Wednesday of one of my favorite paintings at Smith.





Photograph by Gina Duarte


Picasso





12 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear your feelings from Heart and Head are poorly my friend.
    Pleased you have found new ideas to fill your soul with - pushing these poorly feelings out and away.
    Work hard and rest well, with your new Art - fill your soul with pleasure - happiness and contentment.

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  2. Oh, dear Stewart. Thank you for the kind words, my friend.

    It appears that blogging and bloggers have once again been a sort of salvation.

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  3. No worries - and thankyou for your kind words also.
    I have listed your new blog too.

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  4. life is just a series of moments one after the other, hope you are enjoying this moment :-)

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  5. Ah now that is good therapy Gina. I love the new blog. Sadly most British galleries do not permit photography, except the Cortauld. French galleries are fine so long as you don't use flash

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  6. It sounds like a very good plan of yours to spend more time visiting fine art and I especially like the idea that you'll share some of what you have and will in future photograph. I only ever spent one prolonged period visiting some of the galleries of Europe and that was so long ago they had donation boxes but no fees for entry. I wonder if while you were in London you got to see daVinci's 'Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist'? It was kept in a small room that was almost entirely dark but for the soft light focused on the large cartoon. There was a bench set at the perfect distance for contemplation and there I often sat for an hour or more. Great art definitely has healing qualities.

    I really like this painting by Picasso. It's a magnificent image of the exhaustion of refugees who have found their way to a new land and the great love and trust they have in one another.

    I'll go have a quick look at your new blog so I can bookmark it for later. Right now I seem to be more tired than I usually am at this time of the evening. Then again, it gets late early here.
    much love xoxo

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  7. Jams - lots of U.S. museums allow photos without flash in certain galleries, some no photos at all, still others like NYC MoMA, allow you to take photos of whatever you like, anywhere in the museum (as far as I know from my visits) Perhaps Starry Night there is an exception but it's always traveling when I visited there the last few times, that I can't recall now.

    Susan - I will have a look at your link and get back to you. :-)

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  8. I'm sorry that you are having a tough time at the moment. It's good that you have an the new blog as an exciting new project. I'll go over and have a look.

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  9. The Picasso is so very poignant; beautifully so.

    I am so sorry that I missed your last post. I returned to read it.

    My thoughts are with you. I suffered for over twenty years from manic depession (as it was then called). Miraculously, it left me one day and life began anew, although it felt very odd at first not to be see-sawing, clutching for stability.

    I understand that medication can be a hindrance at some times and a help at others; as can therapists. It always seemed to me that no one could actually get inside and be 'me' to know what I was going through and who I am ... and then, as you say, there is the guilt and not wishing to burden others.

    However, there are friends out there and our souls are somehow intertwined with your own.

    As you are an artistic person, I am sure that the museums will open up their gifts to you. Remember that you are yourself and nothing can snatch that from you; you are unique and special, so treat yourself as that and as a fragile piece of art at this moment ( I hope that I am expressing myself all right here).

    Take care of yourself and keep in touch with us. xx

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  10. Spangle, Aguja - thanks so much. :-)

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  11. I will be looking into that. good week

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  12. Taxi - Obrigado pelo vosso apoio. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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