John’s Healing

A good friend of mine, John, 62, came to the Heart, Hands and Healing Art class out of curiosity and a desire for networking since he recently come out of retirement and started a new business. The program encourages artistic and personal expression through a process of painting with hands – no brushes! Each participant starts with the same blank canvas, and when the session is over, each has created an individual masterpiece that often reveals personal insights that may have been previously unknown. The process of allowing oneself to creatively participate in the artistic process breaks down inner barriers and offers new perspectives and possibilities.

Beginning each class by assisting participants to relax, letting go of the busyness of the day, everyone quickly found themselves in a peaceful, receptive state for creativity and fun. Yet, as we began to paint I could sense that John was a little reserved, not sure what to do with the paints since this was his first time participating in the program. I gently encouraged him to just put some paint on the canvas and begin spreading it with his hands. Since there was nothing that he had to create, I gently offered the suggestion to just feel the paint and allow the painting to create itself. At first his movements were stiff, reserved and hesitant. Yet as he continued to paint, his movements eased and he became absorbed in the process. The paint was dark, mostly black with some bits of color of red, green and yellow.

Everyone had finished painting and we put the finished masterpieces up against the wall to view and discuss what we each of us saw in the paintings, a highlight of the program. As it got to be time to observe John’s painting he was silent, deep in thought. Quietly he revealed that he had begun healing with his deceased father. The black represented the hurt caused by his father as a child because he had told John that painting was a waste of time and that he would never be good at it anyway. The other colors – red, green and yellow – represented the hope and healing that had been inspired by coming to the program. He finally began allowing the feelings that he had buried deep inside himself for so long to surface. In a state of disbelief that the process of painting with his hands had ignited the remembrance of his deep buried pain moved John to tears.

John painted a total of 10 paintings within a 6 month period. Each painting became more inspiring than the one before because each offered him a layer of healing from his childhood hurt and the need to prove his “value and worth” to his father.

As his proudly showed off what was to be his last painting he announced that he was not coming back to class. With a smile he said, “I’m done. There is nothing left to prove.” He had forgiven his father and healed the strained relationship by understanding his father from a new perspective. He also began to better understand and make peace with himself as a father and husband and embraced his “remembered” creative abilities. He was finally happy within himself!