Introduction - Art & Psychology

    Being my first blog post, I wanted to share with how Art and Psychology tie in together in my mind, and how I envision both topics when I am creating a piece, in particular my furniture. 

Think about when your at a thrift store or a flea market and you see this old beat up piece of furniture. It has deep scratches and scrapes across it, maybe a leg has a crack in it, or it has deep gauges. You look at this piece and think, 'this is a wreck, I could never use something so ugly and messed up in my home.' 

We are all a lot like that piece of furniture. We have scares on us and in our hearts from life and our experiences sometimes allow for us to look worn down and beat up. We might appear to be like that piece of furniture, our situations and decisions make us not so attractive to others. And maybe some folks pass us up, not being helpful or even sensitive to us and what has made us looks so scarred and 'scratched up' in life. 

Just the piece of furniture that is often overlooked, so are we. We all need someone to come along side us and use their creativity to see the potential that lies beneath the wreck! With the furniture, as is with us, we need washed up, sanded down, filler in the areas that are full of deep gauges from miss-use and miss-treatment, and then a fresh coat of bright beautiful paint. Sometimes the furniture, and ourselves, go a step further. We can accessorize ourselves. In my furniture world this could be a set of drawer knobs that are over the top, a furniture transfer or something else cool like a rice or decoupage paper. For us, our accessories can be our make-up, beautiful jewelry, or even something simple like our smile. 

Once this piece of furniture has been loved on, helped out, and cleaned up; it shines again. Much like we do when someone comes along and loves on us, helps us out, cleans us up, and makes us feel and look shiny and new again. In that moment, this piece of furniture is staged and set out for sale. And for us, in the moment we are refurbished, others also begin to take notice of us in a different light. 

It takes passion, imagination, and a lot of creativity and elbow grease to take a piece from drab to fab. Just like ourselves, often times in our lives. The key is to look beyond what meets your eye in that moment, to release your imagination and see what lies beneath. The same is with us and we sometimes need people to look beyond what they see and focus on what lies beneath our surface image. 

So you see, art and psychology go hand in hand. And imagination & creativity are pertinent in every area of our lives. If we can look beyond the surface, there is sure to be something beautiful waiting for us in the end.