Silencing Myself - exploring emotions through my art - Painting 4

As we build walls around ourselves or allow others to impose prison walls for us, in an attempt to keep ourselves safe,  we deal with a myriad of difficult emotions.

As a coping mechanism and to keep the peace, many of us have decided it easier and safer to swallow our feelings.  Pain, hurt, rage all kept inside in order to maintain a calm exterior.  I call this "swallowing the storm".

Thus was born the idea for my painting "Bridle".    The interesting thing that I've learned is that when we don't honor our feelings and give them a healthy outlet, they end up "coming out sideways".  This can present as anxiety, illness, addiction or any other unhealthy coping mechanism.  While I continued to make myself swallow the storm, holding in my emotions and allowing others to hurl their emotions at me without repercussions, I began to lose myself.

read the next post in this series here