Creativity is expression.
Expression is presence.
Presence ensures a voice.
Voice ensures that we are no longer silent nor invisible.~ Paulissa Kipp
What is presence? Is it standing in the front of a room and delivering words that speak truth into power? Is it the colors you wear? The way you walk? The tattoos you choose to represent your journey or is it something else? I would posit that it can be all of those things and then some.
One of the ways that I create presence in the world is through creativity. For me, creativity is about curiosity. It’s about exploring the unknown within myself and the world and making the unseen visible. Exploring my inner and outer landscape through color, line, water, pigment, texture, yarn, stitches, nature elements and whatever catches my fancy in a given moment. My explorations include drawing, watercolor, mixed media (paint, collage, watercolor, ephemera elements, eco-pigments made from boiling down beets, vegetable skins, etc), crochet, bookbinding and wordsmithing.
One of the powerful things about creativity is its ability to show the world “I’m here and I have something to say”. The language of color, line, texture, the tools used to scratch elements into paper, clay, or any other surface are metaphors for who we are. Our choice of smooth, rough, finely polished or frenetic strings that we choose to leave untucked speak to our moment in time.
And that voice ensures that we are not silent, we are not invisible and we choose not to be ignored. We have important things to say about ourselves, the world, our joys, our trials, our reality and our dreams. Our presence creates reality.
And lest the pesky perfectionism of “I can’t do this right, it doesn’t look like the old masters etc” come to bully you, remember that you can always add another layer. You can cut a piece up and use elements you like. No piece is final until YOU decide you’re satisfied with it. Kind of like life. You can adjust, excavate and use the things that aren’t quite what you had in mind as compost for the next iteration of you.
Your creativity and expression are your presence. Use your curiosity and explore who you are and enjoy the discovery of showing the world the magnificent you. We need you and the unique way in which you see the world.
September is Recovery Month. In conjunction with Recovery Month, SAHMSA (the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has launch the Gallery of Hope: Artistic Expressions of Recovery Across the Nation features over 280 selected artworks and is open for viewing until September 30, 2024 in celebration of National Recovery Month. I am honored that one of my artworks was selected to be featured in the gallery.
You can view the gallery here: https://www.samhsa.gov/recovery-month/gallery-of-hope-2024
As you can see, creativity is presence and presence is healing.
Paulissa Kipp, CPSWS is an artist, author, Certified Peer Specialist, disability rights advocate and Oracle of the Collective Fire. Paulissa is a member of the Disability Rights Nebraska Board of Directors and Protection & Advocacy For Persons with Mental Illness Advisory Council
When she’s not empowering others to use their voice or drawing attention to issues related to human rights, she enjoys crocheting, bookbinding, gardening, reading, painting, photography and shenanigans. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband David and fur kitty extraordinaire, Ebony.
