JUDY McLAUGHLIN-RYAN, MFT
During Covid-19, the creative process has been more important than ever, in terms of speaking out on canvas, through the visual arts. Taking some of the many high stressors presented during this time and transforming those stressors into birth like images has been key. Since March, addressing the real concerns of global healthfulness and individual wellbeing has been my creative intention.
The title of the works, “Holding Hope and Despair”, oil on canvas, illustrates the reflective state and affect one can experience if they seek combining parallel worlds and experiences that present hope and despair. While despair can be such an enormously flooding experience, if we are to hold our worlds, whether psychic or physical, in the light of healing, hope needs to remain ever present.
Holding Hope and Despair
(Oils on Canvas, 18” x 24”)
As an artist, I have been painting oils on canvas for the past five decades, which all started at age five. I would post art around my childhood home, in order to express messages, I thought could benefit my family of origin. In the past few years, as a practicing psychotherapist in Westwood, California, series of artwork have focused on sustaining life, whether through paintings of Romeo the frog, a seucanese frog almost extinct, to Golden Swimmers, diving for the depths of understanding and the unconscious state.
Typically, I have been one of the studios included in The Venice Beach Art Walk, for the past six years, but received news from the clinic regarding the suspension of the art walk during this past year due to the Covid pandemic. Instead, on the weekends I place recent paintings outside of my studio in Venice Beach for viewing.
I believe if our globe can be blind sighted by such a virulent force of destruction and challenge to maintain physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health, then great goodness and abundance can also unexpectedly turn our lives back into the light. When in despair, grab the globe that needs healing, and find hope.