Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty Three

Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty Three

November 3, 2010, 8:00 am
Filed under: catalyst

 

As always, thank you to all of our visitors and all the encouraging comments you left for us. For those of you who did, thank you for playing along with us.

 

Ok! Here’s catalyst number one hundred and twenty-three:

 

Is there something about someone that you’ve always wanted to know but have never asked?

 

We’re thrilled to have Chrysti Hydeck as this week’s Guest Artist.

 

Here’s a quickie self-bio for Chrysti:

 

Christy Hydeck (commonly known as Chrysti) is a self-professed… Artist. Writer. Photographer. Instructor. All-Around-Smartass. Dreamer. Lover of Nature. Believer in Miracles. Collector of Words. Adores Animals, Children, Whimsy and Most-Things-Odd. Student of Life. Purveyor of Hope & Distributor of Kindness.

 

Christy Hydeck is your not-so-average girl, living a fabulously creative life. Considered an outsider artist, she lives with Bipolar Disorder and Tourette’s syndrome. Whether it’s through writing, art, or photography, her goal is to create something authentic each and every day. Christy believes that everyone has an artist within and her mission is to inspire others to find and express their own creative selves.

 

Make sure to check out Chrysti’s blog, her site, twitter, and her amazing etsy shop

 

 

 

Here is Chrysti’s art with this week’s catalyst. You can click on it to see a larger version and a lot more detail.

 

 

 

Chrysti Says:

I distinctly remember reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom and being awe-struck by the impact of the heartfelt, authentic time Morrie & Mitch shared with one another. It raised questions within me, questions I hadn’t thought to ask before, questions for two of the women who were undoubtedly among my biggest influences.. my grandmothers.

 

Their personalities were as different as night and day and yet like most of us – at the core of it all, their hearts weren’t all that different. Both lived lives that mesmerized me, both overcame many hardships and lived with tremendous loss. With each passing year and each experience life bestows upon me; my reverence and respect for those two women heighten in ways which words could never express.

 

There are so many things I wish I could ask. How they did it, how they coped. What their unique perceptions of life were. I so very badly want to know them not just as my grandmothers, but as women, as individuals, as wives, as mothers, as sisters, as friends – the all-encompassing whole that each role they played within their lives represented.

 

Sadly, they have each passed on. There are questions I have that will most likely never be answered… but I search for them nonetheless. Genealogy research has provided me with a few of the missing pieces and their loss has provided me with an even greater lesson – to never wait on asking the things you are curious about. Carpe Diem; seize the day.

 

Technique Highlight:

Try mixing the old with the new. Scan in an original background or painting and digitally blend it within your preferred graphics software. Experiment with transparency. Play with textures, overlays, hues, tones and fonts. It’s an enjoyable process where there is no right or wrong.

 

 

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Here are some interpretations of the catalyst from members of our team.

 

Lia:

 

Lia Says:

I’ve always had an issue with my weight. It’s a struggle to stay on a number I like and when I go over the edge, I look enviously at two things. One is pictures of myself when I was at my thinnest, wondering how I had the willpower to lose so much weight and how I let myself go to the weight I am at at the moment. Second is slim girls, and I always want to go up to one and ask ‘don’t you ever eat?’

 

 

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Dina:

 

Dina Says:

I would love to talk to my ancestors…any and all of them! I’d ask all kinds of questions, but I especially want to know what brought them joy. I find it inspiring to learn how people find and sustain joy.

 

 

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Karen:

Journaling Reads:

A few years ago, I took this amazing class that completely transformed my life. Shortly after, I was back home in Turkey and I was telling my family about the class. My grandmother listened intently and said she wished she’d taken the class and that she had some big regrets about her life. I remember making a mental note to follow up with her, at the time. But I never did. And, this last winter, I lost my grandmother. So now I will never get to ask. So I wanted to make my art be a reminder that you should always ask. Right now. Do not put it off. Do not assume. Ask.

 

 

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Carole:

 

Carole Says:

You know I have to be honest when I was young there was always something popping up that I would think I would love to ask about that, but as I have got older and maybe a little wiser I am realising that I don’t really need to know.”

 

 

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Wendela:

 

Wendela Says:

My handmade flower! I thought all the questions you ask someone, it brings you closer to someones heart, like a flower, when you put off the petals, you come closer to the heart. There are so many questions I would like to ask my friends. And after a good and warm dialoog we are much closer than before, like closer to the heart of a rose….

 

 

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Now it’s your turn: show us your therapeutic art around “Is there something about someone that you’ve always wanted to know but have never asked?” I urge you to give it a try. It can be any form of art as long as it speaks to you.

 

Leave us comments with your work so we can share in your creative therapy, too. If you don’t have a community or blog where you upload photos, you can upload them on our flickr group.

 

 

Remember, this is not a competition. If your art makes you feel even a bit better at the end, you’ve won.

 

Until next week, enjoy each and every moment.

 

 

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