In a visual diary art is therapy

Last month I had the chance to experience a completely different life and culture than my own, a very new life of colours and shapes, of sounds, scents and feelings.  I travelled with my partner Peter through Cambodia.

I want to invite you to “follow me”, to take part in a creative at work, to maybe see a little bit of how I work and create while travelling.

The first few days:

Some time to arrive and find out, find our way together in this new world full of colours, full of people, full of noise and someone always wanting to sell something to us, although in a very friendly way.

I collected colours (of course) but also shapes, the towns and landscapes reminded me so very much of some of my artworks, that it seemed like an answer, a beautiful way of telling me that I can relax here and be at home in some way.

We found beautiful and very soft places, for example at the Art Uni in Phnom Penh, in a wonderfully spacious outdoor café nestled into a luscious garden, we had time to read and talk and be, to walk and to explore and simply enjoy the fact that we had planned nothing and were very free.

I collected emotions and feelings and created collages full of reds and yellows, pinks, and just small amounts of soft greens. This beginning of our trip was full of warmth and energy, full of love and closeness, and enjoyable heat.

The second part, our time to help build a simple house for a beautiful family: 

This was such a special experience for me!

We were a group of seven, all from Sydney, all new to me and as I got to know everyone better, of course all beautiful people.

It was exciting and a bit nerve wrecking to arrive in the village for the first day, not knowing what would really happen, not knowing if I could even do any of the tasks I would be part of, and many around us not speaking English. Not to forget to come out of the Sydney winter, the wet season in Cambodia a very different climate to work in on a building site.

As the days progressed there was exhaustion, there was excitement and awe, there was a lot of learning, but mainly I felt very touched and humbled. Such a material poor village and family, but such a richness in relationships, in laughter, in closeness and connectedness in all their expressions and actions. It was enormously beautiful to see and fabulously wonderful to be a very small part of.

I painted and drew in our breaks, many lines, many shapes, and a lot of connection points between these.

I felt alien, a small part of something big and full of gratitude and celebration all at once, my heart full. 

And then the third part, a soft ending and complete relaxation: 

I got back to my blues and greens, to all the turquoises in between and the flow of inks and watercolours, every now and then a shape of a boat appearing in a lot of space and low hanging wet season clouds. 

We had found our way around and felt at ease, we were happily exhausted and slept well. We read and talked and listened within, we enjoyed silences and made some plans, we walked and swam and rested in the blues of a beautiful little island.

It was the perfect ending to a time I will carry in my heart for the rest of my life.