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Karen Robinson at her Solo Exhibition titled …When words are hard to find – 6th May 2015 at Gee Lee-Wik Doleen Gallery – Craigieburn. Photo graphed by Angie Basdekis for Hume Leader Newspaper Getimage.aspx. Karen standing beside her Painting No. 43 titled: ‘Life’s A Washing Machine’ Acrylic on Canvas Feb 2010. NB: All images are protected by copyright laws. jpg
INTRODUCTION
Whilst watching this ingenious YouTube produced by ‘The School of Life’ in collaboration with Artrake Studio – view below, I found myself relating to its content in such a way that it almost felt like, someone had secretly documented my life and forwarded onto this organisation, to use for research to make this ‘The School of Life’ YouTube. I’m being nonsensical of course – but so much of what is portrayed I found to be true. Yes, we can find ourselves on a treadmill where life is full of things we image that we have to achieve and determined by childhood learning’s, adult desires and society perceptions. We image expectations for ourselves and for others and it is not until something tragic happens and/or when we ‘hit rock bottom’ that we can find ourselves asking why?
ESSENTIAL NORMALITY OF A LITTLE MADNESS YOUTUBE
This above YouTube titled ‘The Sanity of Madness’ is produced by ‘The School of Life’ in collaboration with Artrake Studio and published on 18 January 2016. They state that ‘there’s so much pressure on us to be always rational, calm and sensible: it’s time also to say a word about the essential normality of a little madness’.
CRAZY MOMENTS IN AN ORDINARY LIFE
It is true for me that there have been times in my life were due to circumstances, I either created for myself or circumstances for which I found myself being a part of, have led me to – just not being able to function like a normal well-balanced human being. Therefore presenting occasions where pushing forward just seemed impossible. Like the examples given within this ‘The School of Life’ YouTube, I too found myself just wanting to stop, just stop and get off the treadmill and just rethink about what’s my purpose on this blue planet.
A wonderful statement I really enjoyed hearing in this ‘The School of Life’ YouTube was this: “No good life can or should go by without a few quiet open incidents of complete breakdown”. Wow…this was so good to hear, as it can be hard to forgive oneself when you find yourself doing just that breaking down, feeling like your failing miserably at life, letting yourself down, your family down and ‘the whole world down’ well perhaps not quiet the whole world. According to this ‘The School of Life’ YouTube, a complete breakdown really needs to be accepted as normality and not as something that is seen as a form of perhaps ‘madness’. That we actually need ‘crazy moments’ to be able to work through our lives and think of these moments as just “part of ordinary life“. I do love this statement “just part of ordinary life” and how true it is and a much kinder, productive way of accepting that we are human, fallible and vulnerable.
PAINTING NO. 43 – TITLE: ‘LIFE’S A WASHING MACHINE’
There have been many times in my life where I have been just that, a true human being – fallible and vulnerable and at my ‘wits‘ end. Below here is an example of one of my abstract paintings which I had painted during a time where there was much turmoil in my life. A time were I was grieving for the loss of my son and caring for my husband during his recovery from chemotherapy treatment.
Painting No. 43 – Title: ‘Life’s a Washing Machine’ Feb 2010 Acrylic on Canvas 122cms Length x 122cms Wide x 3cms Deep by Abstract Artist – Karen Robinson. NB: All images are protected by copyright laws!
- Acrylic on Canvas
- 122cms Length x 122cms Wide x 3cms Deep
- Feb 2010
PAINTING STORY
This painting was inspired by how life at times feels like loads of washing tumbling around in a washing machine. Getting pulled this way and that way. Contorted, reshaped, dirtied up, washed out and then hang out to dry – only to start all over again the very next day! A whole mixture of life experiences tumbling into a single life which is shared with family, friends and work colleagues. It is at times enough to drive you mad…
Karen Robinson © February 2010
CONCLUSION: THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD MENTAL BREAKDOWN
But as it stresses within this ‘The School of Life’ YouTube, it’s important to have a ‘good mental breakdown’! A good one “is where we reconnect with the valuable truths that we have lost sight of” and where we also reconnect with “emotions and insights that ordinary life has prevented us investigating“. I feel this is just what I have been engaging in for the last 7 years. I have ‘”returned from the land of madness” and landed “in the fields of apparent sanity“; and through my painting, photo-taking, story-telling, creative writing and volunteer speaking I have been able to regain a good sense of well-being. Its enabled me to push forward and into a pathway that has led me towards a better, most positively fulfilling life…with some ‘healthy crazy moments‘…
Karen Robinson © January 2016
Whilst you are here – please check out my home page! My Art Therapy Journey – A window into the soul of an Abstract Artist through art therapy and storytelling…by Karen Robinson
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Very good points. I’ve been afraid to admit to having my own mini meltdowns due to my depression and anxiety and I have sometimes broken down over seemingly trivial things that have just overwhelmed me at the time. It’s good to hear somebody else say that these breakdown are okay and it doesn’t make you completely crazy, just a normal human being :).
I love your painting. I do like to paint but I’ve never tried anything so abstract like that. I have written a very chilling poem once though, I was in a very dark place, wrote about death in poetry form and forgot about it. A few years later I found the poem and couldn’t quite believe what I had written. It’s almost as if in that moment the creative mind takes over and your conscious mind wanders. Perhaps that’s why being so creative is ultimately good for mental well-being?
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I am so glad that you could relate to my post/blog the why it was intended. Struggling with depression and anxiety is not fun for sure and I too over a life time have been a suffer as well from these kinds of mental health issues. But using different forms of art for therapy has been a wonderful way of working through these conditions. Your poem you speak of sounds like it was a time in your life that you had to verbalize thoughts and emotions in order to move forward towards a better mindset, its something that I have experienced during my art therapy and creative writing group sessions and has been very beneficial in helping improve my sense of well-being. Thank you once again for stopping by, reading my blog and making your comment – much appreciated Karen
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