The Healing Instrument of Art

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Art has been a healing force in my life in several ways.  As a child, I drew all the time. It gave me enormous pleasure, kept me calm, and came to be a meditative oasis.

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In art school, I continued my interest in drawing.  It was no longer so innocent, as I had begun to scrutinize my work; however, there were times when I had what can only be called a transcendent experience, where it seemed that I was a mere vehicle through which the drawing happened.  Sadly, those times were rare, but they left me with a long-lasting sense of peace.

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A third kind of healing happened toward the end of my time in art school, when I was compelled to create a body of work about rape; at 18, during a gap year outside of the United States,  I was raped.  Both of my mentor professors said I would have a nervous breakdown if I insisted on making art about my experience.  Indeed, they refused to sign the papers I needed to make the work. Luckily, Professor Jed Devine took a leap of faith with me and signed the papers.

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I created 600 images organized into series of different lengths originally meant as an animated film.  The work did not cause me to have a nervous breakdown and in fact, not only proved cathartic for me, but revelatory for others as well. 

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I intend to put the images into a guide book so that more people might benefit from its service as a catalyst for discussion and healing.

Please contact me at miriamjacobs920@gmail.com or through this web site if you are interested in using this work for individual and/or group therapy sessions, and/or if you would be interested in reviewing them for publication.