Why Making Things Heals
“If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”
“If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”
This is from the American painter Edward Hopper. It resonates with me because when I paint, when I make things, I am trying to express something. I am trying to regulate, calm down and maybe expunge myself in some way. The way that turns out on the canvas, in the drawing or collage - or whatever the thing - is because I can’t articulate it in words, I can’t explain how I feel in my body. I can’t really quantify the sensations. I might be feeling things that don’t make sense or add up to me but are familiar when probably they shouldn’t be familiar and perhaps it is a rebellion against how I think I should be feeling.
For me making things heals because it can remove that ‘should’. Especially being an abstract artist. There is no should in abstract and I think that’s perhaps why I’m so drawn to it. I enjoy creating landscapes and still lifes and things like that as well. Much of that comes from all my life, especially when I was a child, being told by everybody around me, particularly adults and teachers that I was doing everything wrong. All my decisions and my actions seemed to other people not to be the right ones. There seemed to be a great deal of fault finding with me.
Now I have my autism and ADHD diagnoses, I can understand why that might have been. I grew up and became an adult who questioned every decision. I still do question every decision. Constantly feeling like you’re doing something wrong is not a very easy place to live in. Making things, creating things, makes me forget. I find a place where that perceived criticism doesn’t exist. Perhaps why I’m drawn to abstract is because nobody can say it doesn’t look like the thing it’s supposed to look like. It is what it is and it is an expression of how I feel and by expressing how I feel I have a colourful canvas and a better nervous system as a result.
When making things there is a sense of accomplishment, achievement. I used to spend my days making handbags - the process, the repetition, the cutting, the pressing, the pinning, those things take concentration and it takes that ruminating overthinking mind away. Because the concentration, the focus on the creation of the item, at the end of the day when I’ve got a row of finished handbags that didn’t exist that morning, that I’ve essentially created out of nothing, there’s a satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment with that. I think that can be very healing because sometimes we can feel that we don’t have much purpose, a bit useless, and when we can see that we’ve created something - whether it’s jewellery, homeware, painting, crochet - whatever medium, it comes by the fact of there being something which did not exist before you made it.
This is a positive feeling to have and that’s why it’s good to have a creative practice.
If you are looking to start or continue your creative practice and would like some avenues to consider healing. I have made these:
The Attentive Art Creative Mood Tracker
The Attentive Art Creative Visualisation Workbook
The Attentive Art Creative Recalibration Workbook
The Workshop Bundle is still available for a limited time. Three self study workshops for the price of one. Includes Colour Me Happy, Creative Visualisation and Be Your Own Best Friend. You can find out more HERE.
There is also the Art For Self Discovery Course HERE.
Upgrade to paid for a 10% discount on the Attentive Art Website, including all digital products and all physical artwork. Find out more HERE.
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