Ruth Schowalter, pages 330-343
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In 2015, thanks to Jesse Merle Harris Bathrick’s collaborative art project offered to women in the Atlanta metro-area and beyond, I experienced a "radical act" in a healing exchange with my sister.
WHAT STORY DO YOU HAVE TO TELL ABOUT YOUR SISTER?
My friend and fellow artist, Jesse Merle Harris Bathrick, asked me as she handed me her weary copy of the book, Little Women, that she had purchased in a thrift store. Asked to choose a chapter or page in the book, that would elicit a visual story about my sister was a big challenge for me, considering my more than 55-year-old relationship with my sister.
First of all, I love love, love my sister — especially after completing this art project in March 2015 and having had a conversation with my sister about the story I told through image and word. Upon conclusion of it, I called her up and asked her forgiveness for being such a "bad" sister, and we had a discussion about our "sistership" that was alchemical for me, and I hope — for both of us.
ARTISTIC ATTEMPTS. Before that phone call, however, I struggled with what I would say about my "sistership" in this Little Women project. Then, “magically,” I discovered the chapter, "Artistic Attempts," and found my voice around our relationship.
I've learned through my daily creative practice of image making to TRY, so when I discovered the chapter, "Artistic Attempts," in Little Women, I knew I had found my way into this collaborative project. I repeat the mantra, "not good, not bad, just is" as I proceed in my daily creative work. If this methodology works for art making, couldn't it work for relationships? A radical thought for me combining both my sister relationship and creative act in one art project!
Being a younger sister was tough on me. In this statement, I don't really want to go into my specific story that I have titled, "ABYSSSSISTER," but I surmised that my experience was not only tough on me but everyone else. Hence, my joy in finally claiming what a disaster it felt like to me.
In the improvisational system, InterPlay, we have an "exformation" tool that allows us to move information out of our bodyspirits. In this creative project, I gave myself the alchemical permission to say
SSSSSSSSister, and...
ABYSSSSSSister, and
draw a snake hissssssssssing it!
I laughed! Once all of that hissssssing sssssssister and drawing was out, I experienced FREEDOM to move forward....to choose a new way of being in relation to my sister.
Jesse’s collaborative project invited me into a new way of being through the act of creativity and being in community.
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