LIDIA D ABRAMS, PhD
I am a practicing psychologist and also executive director of a community mental health center with two dozen clinicians working with hundreds of clients. Many more since Covid. I try to impart to all a sense of play and enjoyment of the moment, finding ways to challenge and develop oneself even under restrictive circumstances.
Tree of Life
(Mosaic Sculpture, 7’ x 4.5’)
This piece stands embedded floor to ceiling in my downstairs hallway, where I have my home office. It was created during Covid isolation, with 95% items found in my house. I love re-using things, especially things that are damaged but still hold significance. I enjoyed breaking old, chipped but beautiful decorative plates from my home country of Romania, some made by the Roma people there. Also used some more contemporary plates. I enjoyed breaking several mirrors (rarely used gloves but remained bloodless most of the time). Mirror tiles leftover from the previous owner of the house, tiles from my own construction of the kitchen floor, kitchen backsplash and two bathroom floors were broken with gusto and the naturally occurring pieces were placed to form patterns together. Two large tiles were purchased to supplement the home stash. (No, I do not have pent-up anger that I was releasing. It was just fun breaking things - the thing we usually try not to do.)
I experienced many hours of delicious flow (aka Csikszentmihalyi’s flow experience), finding the pieces that matched and formed the desired shapes. Listening to classical music added to the experience.
I didn’t quite know how it would look when done, but I do like it. I now have lots of small and large mirror, tile and ceramic pieces left over from this project, and expect to use them for another one soon.
Being that the Tree is in the area of my home office, I can show it to my clients to inspire them to try something new and have some creative fun.