I love to paint. It's my medium of expression. So when I speak it's the metaphor that I use. But I could just as easily be speaking about song or dance or poetry. But painting is my art. And of late I have found great joy and discovery in art journaling.

For me, the act of creating is a metaphor for all the internal machinations of my mind and my heart.

It exposes what is unseen within me. Not only in the obvious way that painting shows what I imagined. What I am talking about it more subtle than that.

How I approach my art, the energy that I bring to it and what arises through it is a microcosm of what is going on within me at any moment and in the greater phase of life that I am in.

If I am willing to examine it as an example of who I am and how I operate it becomes my greatest, kindest, and most accurate teacher. To the extent that I am willing to look at the energy I am bringing to the studio, I am offered a masterclass in myself and what energies I am bringing to my life.

Do I feel prepared and ready? Am I anxious and afraid? Do I hesitate and only paint around the edges, feeling tenuous and small? And what of my marks and color choices? What small insights are they whispering to me of my psyche?

It's not necessary to approach art in this way. You can pick up a paintbrush, make something ‘pretty’ and move on to other things in life. But for me, I find that it's become a more intimate relationship than one with a therapist. And I never have to wonder if the page is judging me. Never, never, never. The page doesn't judge. It only reveals. It mirrors back to me in ways that I can understand what is happening for me at any time in my life.

The pages grow and change over time and new things come to light. It's alchemical in this way. The shapes and colors tell a story of my growth, what I have processed and integrated and how I choose to move on from what no longer serves me. They show me how I am steadily growing into more of myself. As I see that reflected back to me within my journal it seeps in, ever deeper.

My truth in a mark and my mind in a texture.

I am painting a portrait of my inner world.