“Through reflecting on the concrete reality of our immediate experience, and through giving voice to our perceptions, intuitions, and “felt-sense” of things, we create ourselves anew”. – Marlene A. Schiwy from: Taking Things Personally: Women, Journal Writing, and Self-Creation As the new year gets underway, I find myself wondering what to do with the collection … More Creating the Self Anew: The Art of Journalling
the seed is splitting there’s still time to climb the spiral staircase just breathe transformation happens ready or not I find the liminal times around twilight and dawn good for automatic work. I let my hand loose, and try to stay out of the way of whatever wants to emerge, sometimes with eyes closed. Then … More Liminal I
Some of the people who have attended my Art for Wellbeing classes over the years have a unique and idiosyncratic style. Over terms of weekly attendance, they determinedly pursue their vision to the exclusion of all suggestions and themes offered by me, or influences of others attending. In doing so, an important collection of work … More Bodies of Work
The Arts for Wellbeing organization I work for, Breathe Creative, was successful in securing funding from Arts Council Wales and the National Lottery fund to run a series of groups, one of which is the Growing Strong group with Mental Health Matters that I run in Bridgend every Friday. In my other role as Refugee … More Creative Wellbeing for Ukraine
Rocks breathe, springs circulate; now is the change complete. She is absorbed into the body of the island, visible to the seer’s eye alone. The Myth of Santa Warner, Ithell Colquhoun, 1947 When I was researching our recent visit to the island of Crete I remembered that one of my favourite artists, Ithell Colquhoun, was … More The Magic of Islands
It was wonderful to see the work of Frances Richards on display again at the Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea this weekend. I became aware of her work after the retrospective I visited back in 2019 – see here. This time, just one painting: Metamorphosis, 1967 was the inspiration for three of the works commissioned … More Transformations
Some wonderful mandalas made in the workshop at Cardiff central library today for Refugee Week. I gave participants a choice of A4 or A3 circle templates to create their mandala within. Working with paint, pens, collage or stamps, visitors created individual healing images to take home with them.
I’m facilitating a new 11 week course for adults at Llanover Hall. This week, participants explored shapes and colour, beginning with the three primary colours, mixing to create new hues and tones and jotting down how each one made them feel. We spoke about the psychology of colour and its power to effect mood, and … More Art for Wellbeing
Opening of ‘Mutable’, the spring open exhibition at Cardiff MADE gallery last night. You can view all the work here. Featuring 22 Welsh and Wales-based artists, the work encompasses the theme ‘mutable’ with reference to nature, marking the arrival of Spring, and within the wider context of climate, seasons, ecology and world change. 4 April … More Spring Open Exhibition
More photo poems for the Arts Council of Wales/NHS Creative Cwtsh commission. I haven’t been strict about the 5,7,5 syllable structure with these, but they are inspired by the Haiku form. Also, having fun with cut-up collaging of letters: In Japanese poetry, kigo (季語) is the word or phrase used to indicate the season and it is often … More Photo Poems
Sarah J Featherstone 