Whew. This one was a little sombre. I guess I should have known that when women are faced with looking at their inner critic (or outer critics), we are ultra hard on ourselves and tend to not only look at but feel all the things that we think are wrong or not working. And, with lives that are so full of responsibilities, expectations and choices, it's easy to pay way more attention to the things that aren't
getting done or that aren't working or good enough instead of looking at all that we are and all that we accomplish.
Luckily, part of the exercise was a second portrait that reflected the opposite of the critic - based on questions like - "what are your gifts?" what's wonderful about you?" what can you say to the inner critic to get a little space and a little perspective?". And despite having gone so far down the path of yuck, I think we all got there and I think it shows in the artwork. I don't think that most women take enough, if any, time to pat themselves on the backs and review their successes - at least the personal ones. It's all about perspective - looking at the big picture - life as a whole - not just the pieces that aren't working in this moment. Inspiration for this project came from several artists - you might want to take a further look. The portraits themselves are a wonderfully simple, rewarding process developed by Pam Carriker. She has a great video on her site that walks you through it. The inner critic/gremlin part was inspired by a book by Diana Trout - Journal Spilling - and another online artist - Violette.
Thanks to the ladies who put their hearts into this evening - I hope that it has tempered some of that endless nattering from the critic and reminded you about how fabulous you really are!
