Make Our Studios Safe Again!

Hi,

I’m Ali and I call myself an Art Educator but honestly that’s a bit of a lie.

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly teach people how to make art, and I do it really well, but it’s not my only intention nor my biggest.

My real intention and honest to god reason for being is this: to teach bravery.

I just use art making as an awesome little vessel to do it!

Our creativity stems from our subconscious, and if you want to know what’s going on in there, all you need to do is stand in front of a blank canvas, it’ll tell ya, I promise!

The thing is, for a lot of us what arises out of our subconscious when we step into the creative space are our conditioned fear responses and memories of when we have failed, been hurt, or told our efforts weren’t good enough.

Our brains, in an effort to protect us from feeling this hurt will look for conditions where that hurt may happen and will do everything it can to stop it from occurring again. You can imagine how small, sterile, and creativity free our lives become if we don’t consciously get curious and endeavour to transform these conditioned responses.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this sweet lil bloggo today.

I come with a long history of pretty shit self worth, a complete lack of self identity, and a mental illness that thrived for decades and looked like an Eating Disorder/ disordered eating/ body dysmorphia… You know, just like a big balloon of self hatred that wrapped itself around me and ‘kept me safe’ from being hurt.

HAhahahah!

With years of perspective, recovery, and absolutely zero medical training, I’ve come to view my ED as a very misdirected attempt at protecting me from all that hurt and fear that I was talking about earlier.

Because I was told by medical professionals that I wasn’t (and I quote) ‘sick or thin enough to have an eating disorder’ I found my own path to health…

And one of the many keys to my recovery, without a single gawd-damn doubt, was making art.

Now, whilst there are a recorded 1 million people in Australia living with an ED, and many others not diagnosed, you don’t have to suffer from this particular illness to know what I’m talking about when I say ‘general self hatred’.

Unfortunately pretty much every woman I have ever met nods their head in understanding when I talk about this, except for one of my close friends but she’s a Leo, so go figure.

There are too many of us walking around with self hatred as our best friend and confidante, our lack of self worth as our reflection, and our fear as our decision maker. Waitlists for mental health are at an all time high, and as a society we’re feeling lonely, isolated, and overwhelmed by the world we’ve created.

So it’s time to imagine something better.

A world that we have a responsibility and the power to create.

A world within a world that can be our training ground for the humans we want to become, as opposed to a walking memory of all the things that have hurt us.

Enter: #MOSSA!!!

Make Our Studios Safe Again!!

My intention here is to teach/ pass on/ share some of the things that helped me on my journey towards my Self.

A self that is no longer filled with hate and fear, but with possibility, trust, and sincere belief. Whilst my mental illness was not a fun ride, it has taught me invaluable gifts and I am very happy to open them with whoever wants to see what’s inside.

Again, I am not a Doctor, or any kind of expert… I just have lived experience and a laptop, and that means I have everything I need to share what I have found to be true.

Now, in order to make our studios safe again we need to lay down some ground rules:

Make: Means that we are consciously creating this new world, we are stepping into the void and we don’t know where it’ll lead exactly. We must trust our intentions.

Our: Mine, yours, ours, we’re in this together. Our spaces individually or combined are our responsibility to care for and nurture.

Studios: Creative practice. You don’t need to have an actual studio, but hey, if that’s the goal baby, then build it!

Safe: In order to create, our biological and physiological body needs to know that it is in a safe space. We’re going to be working with our unconscious fears and getting to know them, this isn’t about light hearted fairies and rainbows… We’re going to the shadow side kids!

Again: We used to feel safe in the creative space, it’s how we are born. It’s time to reclaim our birth right.

This may over time become a more solid program-style undertaking but I’m studying and working full-time so I’m not going to set myself up to fail. Instead, I’m introducing this with a very informal, follow along and ‘see what happens’ kind of vibe. I DO have a Diploma in Art Therapy, so I’m going to be introducing a few exercises along the way and guiding those who want to participate as much as I can.

The end goal is this: I want to explore ways that I can help myself and other people claim their creativity, revel in their bravery, and expand their universe to embrace every single glorious cell of their being.

This may be my life’s work and we’re all here at the beginning, what a fucken beauuuutiful day for it!