How Art Heals-WEB

19 9. Judy Coates Perez WWW. JUDYCOATESPEREZ.COM CALIFORNIA, USA Judy experienced a painful divorce and was finally beginning to heal at the time she created Black and Bloom All Over . “I began this piece by randomly brushing large strokes of color on white cotton, without a defined plan. I enjoyed the interactions of the colors as they came together and overlapped. I painted thorny black weeds on top of bright f lowers to show that life was still painful and difficult at times, but, overall, things were looking up.” This piece was partly meant to record my emotional state—still painful, still angry—but also to be an aff irmation. I used a permanent marker to write inspirational messages to myself. They weren’t meant to be legible in the f inished art, just talismans for my own comfort. It was an intentional effort to cheer myself up. And in a way, I was communicating with my friends that I was feeling optimistic and things were going to be OK. Judy created 8 of Cups when she’d returned to dating after many years of being away from it.