Blair Anne Folts

Dancing at the Gate I
monotype
30 x 22 in.

Though I had experienced childhood trauma, as an adult I believed this was behind me. In 1998, from one day to the next, I awakened to midlife review. A breakdown of my known world began as I relived painful past experiences. At the same time, my adult life followed a traumatic parallel path.

In 2001, after a series of intense losses, for the first time in my life, I found myself unable to create. The act of ‘creating’ triggered flashbacks and incapacitated me. As an artists, I have never considered art as ‘therapy’, nor did I during this crisis. Terrified that this final loss – my creativity – would totally undo me, I returned to the studio to search for my Muse.

The road back to my creative Self involved months of working in a completely new way – squares of blue on top of squares of blue. Ultimately, this exercise opened the door back to my Art. I went into and through the unresolved chaos and came back out in the Light again. In so doing, I had the opportunity to see that the creative process allowed me to experience loss and trauma as a way to free myself from this past.

© Blair Anne Folts