Heart Strings Project
This art therapy project was inspired by the following poem I wrote in my journal when coming to terms with my father’s love after his death:
Strings Attached
June 13, 2016
Love did not flow without conditions.
Conditions had to be met.
With each condition met,
A new string was attached to my heart.
Soon my love was all tied up in these strings.
I could not move.
I was no longer free.
Can the strings be removed without shredding my heart?
Or are they so entangled that they are part of the way I love?
I don't want to love with conditions. I don't want to love with strings attached.
Where are the scissors?
Three months later…
My Heart
I asked Rebecca, my art therapist, “what would be the best way to make a life-size heart? She said, let’s start with a ball of tin foil, then add paper mache strips to build up the surface. After that, she had me add paper clay to mold a heart-like shape. In the final step, I painted different red acrylic paint shades to get a more realistic heart color. I used a palette knife to form the vein-like texture.
What's with the three valves? They represented my original sources of love- God, my father, and my mother.
I made this video to bring the heart sculpture to life.
I finished the Heart Strings sculpture early December, 2016.
Heart Strings Sculpture
The sculpture represents the entangled relationships of my father, mother, and myself. My heart is hanging from the strings that represent the conditions demanded of me to earn their love. The red frame symbolizes my father, and the white frame my mother. I found these empty frames lying around in my studio. The white frame fits perfectly inside the red one, representing the perfect fit that was my parent's love for one another. The painted texture on the construct symbolizes their past childhood scars. I felt compelled to wrap the white cloths around them as a sign of compassion as a wish for soul healing.
I created the video below as a prayer to God. Marianne Williamson wrote the words of the prayer. Her books and lectures have been instrumental in my study of A Course in Miracles and my spiritual growth.