When I first saw Tempest in Yellow by Dorothea Tanning, I could barely look at it.
My body reacted before my brain had a chance to catch up—tight chest, shallow breath, a rising panic.
I turned away.
It was 2017. I had just quit my teaching job to run my business full-time. For the first time, I was seeing real success—something I had worked toward for years. I had a clear plan, a big goal, and a path laid out in front of me. I was chasing the million-dollar dream. I knew what I was building. I knew what I wanted.
But then I walked into the Minneapolis Institute of Art, found myself standing in front of Tempest in Yellow… and it hit a nerve I didn’t know was exposed.
I couldn’t look at it. I couldn’t make sense of it. My chest tightened. My brain scrambled to analyze. But it wasn’t a painting to be understood—it was one that mirrored back the chaos I was carrying but couldn’t name yet.
This episode of Wrecked by Art is about that moment—and everything it echoed through my body, my life, and my creative path.
It’s about the years I spent driven by achievement, perfectionism, and the need to prove my worth. It’s about how creativity wasn’t even on my values list—and how deeply I’d buried that part of myself. It’s about the eventual burnout that unmoored me, the grief of losing the dream, and the fog I had to learn to live inside.
It’s also about Zelda Breath of the Wild.
There’s a part of that game where you walk into a dust storm. Your map disappears. Your compass glitches. You have no idea where you are.
And yet… if you listen carefully, the shrine sensor still beeps.
And if you’re paying attention, you’ll find statues of women holding swords—quietly, steadily, pointing in a direction.
They don’t flash or glow. They just… point.
Like intuition.
Like art.
Like the inner knowing we’re taught to ignore.
This episode is about how we learn to live without the map.
It’s about how our education systems and business cultures train us to look outward for answers, to override our bodies, to distrust our instincts.
It’s about how healing, art-making, and identity reclamation all happen in the fog—not after it clears.
If you’re in a season of uncertainty…
If you’re grieving a dream that no longer fits…
If you’re trying to feel your way forward with no roadmap…
This one is for you.
Listen to the full episode above.
I’d love to hear what it brings up for you. What are the sculptures in your storm? What signals are calling you right now?
With tenderness and fire,
Cindy
💬 Got a story about how art wrecked you? Email me at cindy@artandself.com
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