How Art Heals-WEB

93 40. Cynthia Lee WWW.CYNTHIAJLEE.COM ILLINOIS, USA Cynthia’s piece Immersion represented a breakthrough for her. “It was a firm embrace of abstract expressionism in my art. This painting was the last—and most abstract—in a series of paintings inspired by a winter trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast. I was deeply affected by the nature I encountered there, and decided to write poetry as part of my creative process. In both Immersion and my poem “Navigation,” I tried to capture my sense memory of steering a kayak through the roots and tangled vines of a mangrove tunnel on Old Tampa Bay. This was a primal experience. I felt profoundly connected to the water and the vegetation around me. Time seemed to disappear. I felt immersed in something ancient—a continuum of life, connected at a molecular level.” When I finished this painting, I was satisfied that it held all the emotions I felt in that special environment. And I had a new confidence that I had the tools and techniques necessary to explore my truth abstractly in ways that could speak to others. “The painting Holding Patterns aggravated me over many weeks, and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t finish it. I began to understand that my art was in transition. I was moving away from a rather controlled approach to painting toward something more experimental. The careful balance of rectangles in a traditional composition bored me. I wanted to yield to impulses in the moment. I gave myself permission to edit out whole sec- tions of this stubborn painting to see what might happen next. I added elements here and there in a more playful way.” When I f inished Holding Patterns , I saw the work as the end of an era. I could accept that I had the necessary foundation, and trust that my creative impulses would bring exciting possibilities. New work would unfold.