down the rabbit hole

A holistic healing journey with trees and some familiar characters from the beloved Alice in Wonderland. These characters represent different psyches and versions of myself.

After purchasing our home, I fell in love with our two gorgeous maple trees. There is a sugar maple in the front yard right outside my studio. In the back yard, a fairly massive silver maple. I found myself drawn to them, their textures, especially their bark in contrast with the leaves' smoothness. I became obsessed and found a new subject matter. During this time, I began the holistic approach towards healing the traumas from my past. Amongst other changes in my life, including expressing and sharing my traumas through my art, I could feel my brain healing over time. 

Firing up the neurons, refreshing old memories and embedding new ones. Restoring the neurons, slowly overpowering the control of the trauma — disintegrating it, shrinking it until it almost disappeared. Providing so much clarity in a variety of ways.

This was not an easy journey; it was extremely challenging. At times, I felt lost. I continued studying my trees as I worked on my colorful trees series. Regardless of the time of day, night, or what season it was, I noticed the trees embrace some of the colors surrounding them. It was almost like an explosion of color and like I had never seen trees before. I began to see characters, dragons and animals forming within the trees and my work — some that have shown up in my paintings over the years, like guides within myself. It got me thinking about the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland (1951) and how the main thing my healing journey needed was myself. Something… someone I had all along.