What if the most important things happen when we finally stand still?
- Juna Franka
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
Now she's lying there, the fragile, small person, surrounded by deep blue, calming, covered in a sort of hibernation. An orange mark suggests that she's alive, but exhausted. A standstill, but she isn't frozen, she breathes, her chest is moving up and down.
The rest of the painting reminds me of the human digestive system or a construction to ferment food, a strange machine. Something is processing, something that can't be microwaved but that needs time. Lots and lots of time. It's bubbling and breathing. Gently, full of power.
These are a few of my fragmented thoughts about my latest piece "allow yourself to heal".
My abstract art has always been intuitive - a fact that surprises and excites me as a person who is in her head a lot. "INTO THE LIGHT", my first series, available in July, taught me a lot more about letting my paintings becoming what they need to be. I didn't even know I was creating my first series.
"Allow yourself to heal" was the first painting that came to life in a season of experimenting without any goal in mind, and because I painted at night, after long, intense days to help me unwind and process, too, I only saw the finished, dry paintings the next day. They had taken on a life of themselves - without my help it seemed. They wanted to communicate something and could only come into existence like that: completely intuitive. They touch me deeply and I hope they can communicate with you, too.
„We can’t always fix the hurt, but we can hold space for it.“ Brené Brown
Standstill as productivity? A concept that is admittedly challenging for me. I'd rather check off things from my to do list or at least run around coffee in hand, looking productive. Lying down and focusing on my breath? No, thank you.
But I have to admit, Brené Brown is right as usual. Doing, fixing, reparing - sometimes none of these work. Sometimes slowing down, pausing, allowing and holding space are the only thing that works. Could the rest be rather the opposite of productive? Actual distraction tactics and elaborated protective mechanisms? Very likely.
Ok, you're lying down. Just breathing. And now?
The next painting that showed itself became a guidepost. Would you like to know more? Next week I'm going to share thoughts and ideas about it, because how are we supposed to know what the next step is if we don't know where we are going and where we want to arrive?
Thank you for being interested in reading this. I can't wait till next time.
If you want to get some sneak peeks of the new series "INTO THE LIGHT", for example about this abstract painting about healing, before everyone else, subscribe to my newsletter.
There I'm going to share detail pictures and fragments until it's time to reveal the whole series in July. I hope you'll stay tuned.
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