Posts Tagged ‘art’
Jenn – Your art completely belongs to you
Jenn – Your art completely belongs to you
Jenn explains the wonderful thing about art is that piece belongs completely to you and you have the power to do whatever you wish with it . She makes some suggestions as to what you may want to do.
Carrie – Photography and grieving
Carrie – Photography and grieving
Carrie discusses how photography can be very freeing in that it allows for exploration and move us away from the need to explain and can be more about experience what our own process is all about.
Carrie – Creating a photo narrative
Carrie – Creating a photo narrative
Carrie explains how photography can give insight and express things that there reallhy aren’t words for. Photography can be one addtitional way in which to express and capture those moments of our sorrow, grief and pain as well as transformation and healing
Carrie – Grief and creativity
Carrie – Grief and creativity
Carrie talks about creativity and expressing grief and loss… that in many ways can offer insight and comfort for those who are grieving
Holly – The symbolic nature of death
Holly – The symbolic nature of death
Holly discusses doing art, the symbolic nature of urns and the denial of death
Practical Possibilities for Mourning in a Pandemic
Post by Maureen Pollard, MSW, RSW
Practical Possibilities for Mourning in a Pandemic
When someone we care about dies, we have a natural reaction of grief. During a pandemic, many restrictions and precautions we are living with to help prevent the spread of virus can interfere with the ways we are used to coping with the experience of grief. Here are some strategies that can help:
Hold a small, personal gathering and share it with live-streaming. You can use Facebook or Instagram Live to share your ceremony with people who might want to observe it since they can’t participate in person, thus ensuring that anyone who loved the person can honour their passing.
Hold an interactive virtual gathering to celebrate the person’s life. Just about everyone can Zoom these days, and in a virtual meeting you can join in and take turns telling stories about the person who died, or play music and remember together in a more personal and interactive way than by live-streaming a small ceremony.
Create a slideshow using photographs and music. You can tell the story of the person’s life using photos through the years and with music they loved, or you can make a tribute to the things that were important to them or about them in their last years of life.
Create a memory book either using a scrapbook, or an on-line photo-book service. Again, you can show their life over time, or create small personalized books that show their relationship with you, or with other special people in their life.
Dedicate a space in the house to the person who died. It could be a shelf or a corner table. Place their picture there, and maybe a candle or something that reminds you of them. Spend some time in this spot when you want to feel close to the person.
Dedicate a time each day to grieving. You may find that by setting aside particular times of the day or week to miss and mourn the person who died, your grief becomes less intrusive as you go about the tasks of your everyday life.
Bring out their favourites. Watching their favourite movie, playing their favourite songs and eating their favourite foods can bring back positive memories. Wearing their favourite robe or sweater can help them feel close.
Find your own favourites. Choose a movie, music or other sensory experience that reminds you of them in a way that you find soothing. Sometimes it can be too hard to revisit their favourites but it can be comforting to choose your own.
Make art in their memory. Paint or draw a picture. Write a poem or story. Write a song or choreograph a dance. Create a sculpture or needlework. Art helps us express powerful feelings in a wide variety of ways and can help us heal.
Take care of yourself. Be gentle and do the things that bring you comfort and ease. Maybe a long hike. A hot shower or bubble bath. Cuddling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good book. By giving yourself calming, pleasant sensory experiences you give your heart time to heal.
Creative Outlets for Grief
Post by Maureen Pollard, MSW, RSW
Creative Outlets for Grief
In the depth of raw, deep grief it can be hard to find words to express your feelings. Perhaps you are not much of a talker, anyway. Maybe this terrible tragedy has left you speechless. There may be no words for the terrible experience you find yourself caught up in.
In times like this, expressive arts can provide a way for the feelings to flow. Such a release of feelings can ease the pain a little, as you put move some of the painful emotions gripping your heart out into the world. Making art can help shift the emotional burden you’re carrying, making it more manageable. Your creative pieces can help people understand what you feel like.
Music
Sing your sorrows out by making up lyrics to a familiar tune that brings you comfort. As your own words flow with the music you can feel the emotions flow, too.
Alternately, maybe you have a brand new melody rolling through your mind with words and phrases joining together to express your feelings. Writing your own song can be a powerful path to share your experience.
Drawing and Painting
Whether you prefer pencils, oil pastels or paints, creating images and using colour can be freeing. Sometimes an abstract piece that is full of colour or dark with shadows shows your internal landscapes as you navigate your grief. Other times it can feel comforting to create an image that is symbolic of your memories of the person who died and sentiments related to your grief.
Collage
Creating memorial collage, or a scrap-book style memento is an alternative to drawing and painting for those who feel more comfortable selecting images and words and arranging them together. Using photographs, personal mementos, old magazines and craft supplies, you can create a beautiful tribute to your person that honours your relationship and memories.
Dance and Theatre
Choreography of a series of movements especially designed to express the range of your feelings or in memory of your loved one. Creating scenes that represent important moments in your relationship, or incidents of your grief experience. Through physical actions such as these, you may gain a sense of relief as you embody emotion and bring your inner world to life.
Poetry
A poignant turn of phrase. A description that creates a vivid image. Words that link together thoughts, feelings and illustrations of your experience of love and loss. Poetry can be short and simple, or it can be long, meandering through events. It can rhyme, but it doesn’t have to.
Journaling and Memoir
Writing about your feelings and experiences can be healing. If you take time regularly to create a safe and comfortable space to write in, with privacy and permission, you can begin to understand what has happened. Writing can help you make sense of your story, and move it out into the world in a way that helps you feel relief. When your story is written and rewritten until it offers insight and recovery, it may even be ready to share with others to offer support, understanding and hope for those who come after you in your particular experience of loss.
It can be painful to talk about grief. Yet healing usually involves finding someway to hold the pain, to express the experience and shift your perspective in order to ease the burden of carrying loss that is yours for life. If talking is too hard, experiment with making art.
Remember:
- There is no way to do this wrong. All of your art is meaningful and important just because it is yours.
- You don’t have to share any art you don’t want to. This process is for your healing first and foremost.
- Your grief is your own to navigate, in your own way, at your own pace, with expressive art or without. You are always free to choose.