What's at the core of art, music, dance, drama, writing, and play as healing arts? It's simple -- hope.
Like many of my creative friends in the worlds of art and psychology, I feel like I can finally exhale now that the Presidential election is over. Like many, I have had repeated moments of surging emotion. But most of all, I suddenly feel free. And when I feel free, I know an extraordinary spell of creativity is coming on.
Scott Barry Kaufman's recent post on creativity put into perspective what I have been feeling for the past couple of days. Like Kaufman, I look forward to creative times ahead as both an artist and therapist. Whether that's due to my liberal philosophy or some other personality trait, I cannot say. But I can say the outcome of the election brings not only a sense of freedom and imagination, but also resonates what is at the core of creativity as a healing art: Hope.
Creativity as a healing force is more about hope than anything else. When I pull out my drawing journal or prep a canvas to paint, it is about a dream of something that can be, the relentless hope that resides in my own creative process. As a therapist, when I sit beside a military veteran, an abused child, or a family who has suffered loss, it's hope I see in their creativity and in their journeys to reparation and recovery. The easel, the music room, the poetry journal, and dance studio all have one ecology in common. They are places of hope both in what is created within them and environments for transformation, renewal, and ultimately, redemption.
As I continue to dream my dream of the arts as healing agents for this world so overwhelmed with pain and problems, I realize those wishes are a very small part of so many different dreams that have possibility in this defining moment. At least on this one day in time, there is a creative force that has captured a collective imagination. Change is gonna come. And if only within me, that is good enough. Best of all, I have a whole lot of hope.
© 2008 Cathy Malchiodi
http://www.cathymalchiodi.com
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