I got a call yesterday morning from my home girl Ruby Taylor who lives in Oakland California. The call came at 6:00 am California time, so I prepared myself to hear the content of the massage. First thing she said was, she was in the hospital, that she had fallen & broken her left leg in two places the night before at her home. After her telling me all the details of the situation, she told me she was going into surgery today at 12:00 pm California time.
I told her I would be in contact with her as soon as she got out of surgery and that I would send GOOD VIBE'S & PRAYERS her way for a speedy recovery... So, I'm going to open this whole thing up, to everyone around the world reading this post, to send Ruby Taylor GOOD VIBE'S & PRAYERS FOR A SPEEDY AND HEALTHY RECOVERY...
OK Folks,.. I just spoke to Ruby (sounding very drugged) after her surgery on her leg, her sister from Seattle is with her at the hospital, her sister said Ruby is doing well. We all can continue with the GOOD VIBE'S & PRAYERS for Ruby Taylor's speedy & healthy recovery. Thanks Everyone.
Lately I have been thinking about and searching for articles on mental health & Art Therapy, I found this interesting article I would like to share from a Artist named Robert J. Simone who lives in Florida.
ART IS THERAPY!
Art often has a remarkably therapeutic effect on the quality of artist’s lives. Salvador Dali suffered paranoid delusions and hallucinations as a youth. In his autobiography, The Secret Life, Dali credits painting daily with his recovery and ability to function in life. In that volume he states that his quality of life was such that he woke up each morning excited with anticipation wondering what this Salvador Dali would create that day.
The famed American artist Robert Henri, in his book The Art Spirit, wrote about coming to the easel some days feeling fatigued or under the weather only to be filled with energy and well being after painting for a short time. He also wrote of his belief that the mental activity of painting contributed to health and longevity of artists.
Vincent Van Gogh’s life would have been of little consequence were it not for his art. Suffering a variety of mental problems, Van Gogh found relief from the institutional life through painting and writing about his painting in letters to his brother. When living outside of institutions Vincent derived a sense of purpose from his art that helped him cope with his depression and psychiatric problems. Without art the unfortunate circumstances of his death would surely have happened sooner. And today, more than one hundred years after his death, he is worldwide household name. His work has universally recognized like no other.
In my own life I found that rediscovering my passion for art was the key to recovery from a series of anxiety attacks which occurred in my mid to late thirties. I hadn’t done any artwork for nearly twenty years when my living circumstances changed as a long term relationship ended. I had great difficulty adjusting and suffered high levels of stress and anxiety. I consulted two different therapists at Catholic Charities in Tampa. One was a lay woman and the other a Catholic Priest. Both off-handedly referred to me as a “frustrated artist”. That started me thinking about the real love lost in my life, my passion for oil painting.
Eventually I got my self together enough that I invented a system for dating (more on that in a future blog) which led to my marriage to Penny, my best friend, companion and lover. Penny and I viewed, and still do, our wedding as “the beginning of a great adventure”. (We credit Lou Reed for that line). Even so I still experienced, with some frequency, a gnawing ache of anxiety in the area of my diaphragm. I guess Penny saw the frustrated artist in me too because she started encouraging me to take some painting classes, which I did. Eight or Nine years later I am deeply immersed in the study and pursuit of oil painting. I paint almost daily, teach regularly and participate in both indoor and outdoor shows. I haven’t felt that gnawing ache in my side since, well, I don’t know when. One thing I do know is that I am happy and never have to drag myself out of bed in the morning. Art is therapy!
http://robertjsimone.com/about/my-story
