how art transcends language
Michelle doesn’t need to put her feelings into words because she can see it all in this artwork.
Some human experiences defy language—hearing your baby cry for the first time after an arduous labor, the sudden death of a loved one, helplessly watching a friend go through something devastating, the shame of your debit card being declined with a cart full of groceries, or the ever-present gnawing of chronic pain. These deeply human experiences and ones like them sometimes make us feel so lonely. We experience these profound moments of our tortured or sublime emotion and wonder how the rest of the world can go about their daily lives unphased.
It highlights that we can seem connected with our phones and social media, but many of us walk around feeling a gaping disconnection. We don’t know how to talk about what is happening with us, so we keep our conversations and connections surface-level. We don’t want to bother others with our pain. We don’t want to wreck the “high vibes.” We don’t want to be a Debbie Downer. We feel like we are the only ones suffering because everyone else is so skilled at hiding their pain.
One reason we feel like we can’t talk about what is going on with us is that we just don’t have the words for such deep feelings. We try using metaphors, such as “The rug was pulled out from under me” or “I was falling without a net.” We try to make things tangible and physical so that the internal can make sense.
However, one of the best ways to explore the depth of human experience is through the arts, which is one of the Art Connection Circle’s most potent qualities. Michelle Godfrey, an alumni from this last round of the Circle, had a powerful experience with a work of art that beautifully illustrates this point.
Although I usually curate the art for the program, I like to switch things up for the last session. For that class, I invite participants to bring in a work of art that resonates with where they are in their current lives. Michelle brought to the group Self-Portrait with Red Dot by Helene Schjerfbeck.
I invite you to take this artwork in for a minute before reading on. What do you think is happening? How does this artwork make you feel? Have you ever felt anything similar before?
Seeing this artwork for the first time, the feeling in the Circle’s Zoom room was palpable. The artwork immediately communicated something incredibly powerful even before hearing any of Michelle’s words about it. We energetically sent our love and support to Michelle, knowing that to have chosen this painting means she is feeling something intense.
The story below is paraphrased from the transcript of the last Circle session, with Michelle’s permission.
In an early session of the Circle, I lead participants through a creative values exercise to uncover their top values. In that exercise, Michelle realized that one of her top values is family, but she is separated from most of her family, having immigrated to Canada from the UK. And to make things worse, her sister, who battles cancer, is now the primary caregiver for her ailing parents, her mother with Alzheimer’s. She described the realization of her value of family clashing with her separation of them like a clash of tectonic plates. Michelle has been feeling so many unexplainable emotions about this experience.
She couldn’t put it into words.
These overwhelming feelings are causing her so much inner turmoil and also leading to some destructive behaviors, but when she saw this painting for the first time, she saw it all staring back at her. She sees her emotions and how her parents’ states impact her and her sister. She sees the red bit on the painting as the tiny last bit of life in her mom that they are all trying to cling to. She sees her dad—dying every day while trying to cope as his energy slowly drains.
She couldn’t put it into words.
But now she doesn’t have to. When she sees this picture, she sees that this artist gets her pain. She doesn’t need to express her feelings with words because anytime she struggles with those overwhelming emotions, she can look at this painting and feel some relief.
She doesn’t need to put everything into words because she can see it all in this artwork.
The next rounds of the Art Connection Circle are coming up this summer, starting in June. Please consider joining us because no matter where you are on your journey, art holds you up and reminds you that you are not alone. Art gives us a place to connect to ourselves, our emotions, other humans, the artist, and the human spirit and/or the divine.
The program runs for 8 weeks and has two cohorts: Tuesdays 6-8pm Eastern starting June 18 or Sundays 12-2pm Eastern starting June 2. Use this link to get more information and register.