The theme of my artwork is unconditional self-love. But I didn’t always realize this. In the beginning, I began painting my art only as a way to cope with the isolation, frustration and depression caused by chronic illness (stomach ulcers, panic attacks and chronic fatigue syndrome). My goal was to paint images that made me feel hopeful and encouraged. In order to paint such images, I first had to explore the areas of my life that needed the most encouragement. To do this, I had to look inward and admit to myself my problems and pain. But since it is hard sometimes to be honest with yourself, I first had to create a safe space of observation. And I did this by agreeing with myself beforehand that I would only look at the facts of my life with compassion and kindness rather than with criticism and judgment. If I didn’t create this safe space of observation first, I would end up feeling self-defensive during the process and then I would shut down and not be able to help myself. Once I was able to identify my problems and pain, I searched myself, my self-help books and my spiritual studies for advice and that advice is what I painted: “Go with the flow”, “Release worry”, “Trust yourself”, “Take time to listen”, “Slow down”, etc.

With each painting, I went through a process of self-examination. And with each painting I got to know myself better. As the years went by, I noticed that the creative process was teaching me how to love myself. The way it did this was that it created a setting and a reason: to listen to my feelings, to process my emotions and beliefs, to encourage myself, to make time for myself, to slow down and relax, to trust my judgment, to take risks, to realize my ability, to be patient with myself and to allow myself to speak.
Once I made the connection that the creative process was teaching me how to love myself, at least within the boundaries of creating art, I also noticed that my artwork reflected this same theme of self-love as well. For the first time in my life I could see that not only was each painting a message of encouragement but a message of encouragement to love myself. This is when I realized that my art was and has always been about unconditional self-love. I just didn’t see it until now!

This breakthrough discovery was exciting and it motivated me to learn more about self-love in order to learn to love myself in all areas of my life.

Through this journey I have learned a great deal about self-love. And I now have learned how to implement self-love into all areas of my life. Some of the most important things I have learned about self-love are : Self-love is an ongoing process and it needs our nurturing every day. Self-love is about paying attention to what is going on with ourselves ~ spirit, mind and body instead of ignoring, avoiding, neglecting or numbing ourselves from the truth. And Self-love is about learning to speak to ourself, treat ourself and envision ourself with love, support and encouragement, in all areas of our life…. And nothing less.

I feel that unconditional self-love is so important that I have written a book about it entitled “Unconditional self-love: what it is, why it is important and how to nourish it in our life.” Some of the many reasons I feel unconditional self-love is so important is that it heals us, it awakens us, it activates us, it opens us up to live a fuller richer life. Unconditional self-love is also empowering and it empowers us to change our life and the world around us.


I hope that the message of unconditional self-love that I share in my art and writing is a blessing to you and I hope it inspires you to continue, renew or begin your commitment to love yourself always. For when we love ourselves we live in the love that Life and God has for us.

 
 
 

(08/23/03)