CARF Butterfly

H.M.Craig, "What Lies Within Us", acrylic and oil on hardwood panel

Good news!  The above painting has been selected to be in CARF International's corporate collection! CARF International is a nonprofit organization that works on accreditation for rehabilitation facilities  (like the one I went to).  They had an art call for people who have been or are going through rehab.* There were about 1,000 submissions.    I consider myself lucky to have been picked.

Even better news, some new friends of mine, Luca and Sebouh, also had pieces selected! They have also had brain injuries and are very passionate about creating art. We have come to know each other because we all volunteer at Spaulding Rehab hospital's Peace Art Gallery committee.  Joan Horgan, the head of the committee, made sure our achievement was celebrated and brought in a wonderful chocolate ganache cake with all of our names on it. We met David Storto, who offered his congratulations.  We were also given a toast by another great lady....... who's name I totally forget (memory problems), but I can tell you that she had a beautiful green necklace (me and shiny things, go figure).  There were pictures taken, and Sebouh declared us to be the "Dream Team".


*art therapy is a big-time healer of minds and lifter of spirits!

Erik Johnson

An update about  Erik Johnson from Bravo's art reality series "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist".  See the last post here. Last week, he said a bit more about his brain injury.

"I've done so much dark stuff.... I'm gonna make a soft painting for my girlfriend. She's seen me fall on my face time after time after time.

Especially after the motorcycle accident. 

I've had physical therapy, 5 surgeries, neuropsych testings, and re-training my brain how to think and talk, and learn how to walk.

That's when I started doing art again.

I turned broken and she stayed with me. That's why I'm gonna make a piece dedicated to her. "

Bless our caregivers. They help us be who we want to be. They support us in adversity. They see the battle that is being fought, and while we are on the front line.... they are very much integral to us winning our fights big and small.

Also, it should be noted that Miles (also on the reality show) is dealing with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.   He does great things, but in the midst of working, he gets insanely overwhelmed and has to retreat to a quiet place to calm down or take a nap.  He gets a lot of flak for this from some of the other artists.  I don't think they see that this is a survival and coping issue, much to the contrary, it seems as if they are interpreting his behavior as a dramatic artsy guy thing/ cocky/ lazy (you know.. the automatic assumptions projected onto those with an invisible disability). If he can't get in a place where he feels calm, I suppose he will have an out and out meltdown (which could end up in a number of ways).

I had a hope that Erik and Miles would be able to identify with the inner struggle that each other is dealing with. It appears that it is not so, for reasons I will not go into here. I think that's something that this injury has brought to me... a new way of seeing, of being empathetic.

Music-Madeleine Peyroux

Madeleine Peyroux

This is When I Dance Around Like a Little Girl

 HMCraig, Opportunities, 30x40", acrylic on canvas

One of my paintings, "Opportunities", was selected to be in a TBI art show in Seattle.  I know, this is fantastic, right??  Wait, it gets better....   One of the local news stations, King 5, did a segment on the show.  Opportunities was shown a few times, one shot up close!!!   :)


Here's a link to King 5's segment about "Recreating Me", a show by TBI artists in Seattle, Washington.

I wish I could have been there, but it's sooo good to see and hear that the event was spectacular.

Creativity in America

Create Art photo by Pringle Hill on Flickr

When someone is describing another as creative, what do you suppose they mean? Would it be that they're painting frescoes on their living room ceiling and know how to decorate wine glasses? Would it mean that they had an unusual idea to solve a problem (Bob over there rigged his lawnmower to the Roomba). Can they make up a song or a story?

It's all of the above. Creativity isn't just relegated to the arts. Creativity is a way of problem solving. A way of figuring out  how we're going to turn grass into gas, how we're going to re-structure business, how we're going to deal with education in economically diverse areas. Creativity is good for all of us.

The problem is, our culture has been sorely under-valuing creativity. According to this Newsweek article, it's starting to show.

"Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”

The potential consequences are sweeping. The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. 

Quote

I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.

-Georgia O'Keefe

Dior Fall Collection- Flowers!

If only I could get my hands on some of these wonderful creations! Or pieces like them... I would glide around my neighborhood in a pansy dress. I would lounge around on my porch resplendent in tulips!!  Heaven!   My only problem is that they don't seem like the type of dresses I should paint in.

More beauty here.

Photos by Monica Feudi.