Responding!

Today I visited an exhibit called  Helmi Juvonen: Dispatches to You (R.S.V.P.) at the Frye Art Museum. Helmi, as the artist was known, was both a painter and she made woodblocks. She was very influenced by Native American motifs, though she was not herself Native American. Just a surface glance at her work was interesting enough, but what interested me most was her story, and the story the exhibit was telling about her.

Helmi had several experiences with mental illness, including several long stays in the hospital after experiencing a psychotic break. She ended her life still hospitalized.

She also fell in love with one of her artistic contemporaries, another one of the Northwest Mystics- the group of artists she belonged to in the region. Her feelings were never returned.

One of the curators' summaries of one of her pieces also describes her generosity with other artists. It tells a story of her freely giving away money to other artists who were even less well off than she was when they needed lunch!

The exhibit, then, is a "response" to Helmi. The curators' summary suggests that Helmi's work was calling out for a response, and that the exhibit is a way of responding to her. Responding to the distress she must have experienced in her illness, and the loss she must have felt at never receiving love in return. The curators hoped that we, as viewers, would "read" the exhibit as an "RSVP" to Helmi.

I don't know exactly what it was about Helmi's story that struck such a strong chord for me. Certainly, there are many ways her story resonates! Her struggles with mental illness remind me of my own work with organizations supporting those with mental illness here in Seattle, and her creative response to the inner struggle that mental illness is reminds me of how creating art is way to dig out hope, out from under the many layers of fear that mental illness creates. Creating art, for me, shows me my own inner light that is impossible to see when looking at the external world.

When I went home, I found that simply seeing the exhibit as a response was not enough. Branching out from my own 'Ignatian' prayer routine- which involves a meditation on scripture, followed by a reflection on the day, paying attention to all one's senses in the process- I began to draw based on the feeling I remembered from seeing the exhibit for Helmi. Here it is. It is simple, and not about being good, but about being a response to feeling present-to, and in the presence of someone else's inner world.