artspace...A Journey Home through Intuitive Painting

Creativity is an inner journey, a powerful life force that is given to us to explore ourselves and our world.   While not therapy, it provides a powerful vehicle for healing.  My own creative journey has become intimately interwoven with my lifelong spiritual quest.   My Shamanic training and breathwork experiences have strengthened my connection to a deeper wisdom inside, opening my heart, and calling me to embrace my souls purpose with authenticity and compassion for all beings. My journeys with Buddhism and process painting have deepened my awareness of the ways that stories, judgments, and beliefs influence my well being.  All three paths, in addition to my journey with acute and chronic health issues have deepened my comfort with not knowing, allowing, trusting, and being fully present, embracing each moment with gratitude.

I offer individual therapy and supportive counseling for individuals facing life transitions, and for those dealing with chronic or life threatening medical issues.   I am a licensed therapist and mental health nurse practitioner with a diverse background and training.   I spent many years working with patients and their families who were confronting a cancer diagnosis, and was the director and developer of a psychosocial oncology department back on the east coast.  I spoke and wrote about cancer survivorship and designed and facilitated groups addressing the loss and grief associated with illness.   It was this work which deepened my appreciation for the importance of relationships, being fully present, and prioritizing what is truly of value. 

I am available to meet with ongoing or workshop participants who would like additional individual time to process and integrate their experiences more fully into their lives.  

50 minute appointment              $75.00         (some sliding scale appointments available)

I have also met with individuals who do not yet feel ready to paint with others and would like to work with this creative process individually.

 90 minute appointment              $75.00             (this appointment will include considerable painting time in addition to teaching and processing)

 I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling
or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live
so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova

   kathy@processpaint-artspace.com

 I think the creative process is not about creating something else.  It's about the process itself creating who I am.     

        Myumi Oda ,  artist & writer

 My journey a few years back with health issues that were unable to be diagnosed easily or quickly  offered me the opportunity to deeply live the process that I teach.  I was challenged to confront a powerful reality as I was forced to live in each moment as I truly had no idea what the next would bring.   I could no longer predict what my future would hold as I had no idea what was wrong.  During this time I continued to paint as I could, while also continuing to teach at the studio.   Movement was very difficult so the paintings that I created were small, and often painted while sitting on the couch or on my bed.  What was fascinating was how my health journey influenced my own painting.   It kept me immersed in the moment and the area on the paper in which I was painting.   It was as if I could no longer see the "whole" painting.   I would often be surprised by what had unfolded.

Because I was truly sensing each moment there are a number of my paintings which in fact clearly reflect what was happening inside my body and my brain.   When I looked at them months later I realized that they could have in fact helped in diagnosing my condition I suspect.  The vestibular disorder, cognitive and visual problems, and neck injury seem somehow to be reflected in these paintings as the figure falls gently to the right.   These were painted most interestingly before I was even aware of my own propensity to fall to the right which only intensified over time.   I had no plan in mind when I started, beginning with color and movement.  I offer these as a glimpse into the unconscious, intuitive, and healing power of the creative journey.