Volcano

I began creating artwork regularly during my time in mental health recovery. In the early days it offered me a distraction, something I could focus on outside of my own challenges. I would use different materials and artistic mediums- beading, sketches, paints, collage and natural materials to create and construct my own images; which I found offered me numerous therapeutic benefits.

In this piece, which was constructed as part of a series of images in an art journal, the symbol and colours of a fire red volcano are offered, a communication of the possible emotion of 'anger', or the space of 'eruption'. What is particularly interesting was that at the time of creating this piece I may or may not have understood the intention to communicate such feelings- I simply allowed the impressions onto the page as they wished to appear and in the medium that I felt drawn to at the time. The very act of creating the work, placing the marks or impressions onto the page was perhaps therapy enough in the release of doing so, without the need for interpretation.

The assumed meanings of such pieces for me here are now considered in retrospect and in the considerations of the context in which the piece was created. These are placed from my associations with the symbolism and metaphor, here being that of fire. The symbol of fire for me now represented the need at the time of creation- for release, to express or transform emotions or experience. Symbolism, metaphor and motif feature strongly across my work offering something beyond that which it appears to be, demonstrate the unspoken, or to capture in form that which may be difficult to communicate vocally. For me, art has offered a place to explore and express, release or integrate emotions or experiences that need to be witnessed. Here the symbol of fire becomes a doorway of opportunity for heightened self-awareness. I wanted to make something beautiful out of the darkest experiences in my life- art in various forms had offered me a medium in which to do so, and I'm continually inspired by life, and the complexity of human emotion to continue to create art in various forms today.

Carmen Edwards is a psycho-spiritual coach and creative workshop facilitator from Sheffield. She is also a graduate of the Arts; both from the University of Sheffield, theatre and performance BA and Leeds Beckett University interdisciplinary psychology MA.  Her inspiration and medium for her work include theatre, dance, writing, fairy-tale, transpersonal and archetypal psychology, spirituality and the natural world.