Art Is About Being Whole

<p><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Art like love just is.</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Giving Receiving Asking</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>for nothing. Just whole.</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>In that pristine moment of being with the art in front of me an expansive swell fills my chest. Tears spring to my eyes. The art transfixes me and I cannot look away. Sometimes my legs feel weak wobbly. My heart and breathing speed up to keep up with my emotion. It's not an out-of-body experience but a full-body one.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Looking at art is my sacred journey. It is my spiritual practice. It is my meditation cushion and my temple and my altar and my pew. It is my challenger. It is my refuge. Art is one of my tools for self-development just as much as all of the books I've read. I don't look at art to learn </span><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>about</em><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> the art. I look at art to learn about </span><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>myself</em><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>. I look at art to learn about the world and my place in it. I look at art in order to fully understand and embody who I am who I want to be and how I want to be. My body slows my mind slows and I can just be with-with art and with myself. The art has changed me.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>A MEMOIR BUILT WITH ART</strong></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Art Is About Being Whole: A Memoir</em><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> explores Cindy Ingram's journey of finding who she is underneath all the layers of protection. Each essay incorporates a work of art that encapsulates growth experienced at pivotal moments in the author's life. Each piece of art is a touch point to come back to again and again as she acknowledges where she has been and where she is headed. From a Great White Shark swimming stealthily beneath burnout to a futuristic painting of a mask connecting the author with the humanity of her long-lost biological father to a succession of painted eyes clarifying her spirituality each artwork helps Ingram put words and images to thoughts feelings and transformations that often feel too hard to explain.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>How do you explain a feeling? That's what artists do.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>MY HOPE FOR YOU: A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>I write this book to illustrate how art is more than just something to appreciate or learn about or look at but that it has the power to heal give clarity hold space and do magic. In my darkest times deep in grief anxiety depression and shame art has always been there for me. It was how I experienced the fullness of life and the depths of connection before I did the work of coming to a place of wholeness. A place where I feel like I know and love who I am without shame without feeling the need to pretend to be something else without the constant need to fix my broken self. Using works of art to show this is a natural choice because I have dedicated my entire life to sharing the magic of art with anyone who will listen and now that is you.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>I hope as you read these pages and be with these artworks you find a safe place for you-safe with the art that I explore in the book and safe with me as I share my heart with you.</span></p>