I have a gift that I discovered in my twenties. I could read art and know how the people who made it felt when they made their art. This gift has developed a great deal since I started working with people to lessen their suffering, using art-making in the process. Today much more information comes to me through people’s art. And more still comes through my own art-work, done in people’s presence, or when I am aware of them.
I used to be a graphic designer and an illustrator. I wrote for children and a little bit for adults. I came to NYC in 1985, 40 years old, married with three children and started a new career as an illustrator only. A few years later I became involved with Chan Meditation Center and studied meditation and Buddhist knowledge with the late Master Sheng-yen from Taiwan. For twelve years I was in a process of deepening my meditation. I had many more experiences and insights and my life changed. After having illustrated more than 40 children’s books and writing two of them, I left this career too and went to NYU to study art therapy.
ByGiora Carmi
It is 3 AM. The strength of the pain came back after a lot of walking on Governors Island and downtown Manhattan, drunk with city views, drunk with walking. The pain, the body’s shaking, the murmur along the nerve-ways make it impossible to sleep. I go to the studio. The words come pouring easily and…
ByGiora Carmi
There are three ways that I know of, to change reality for the better for you. All of them depend on changing yourself. All of them depend on becoming more and more happy, regardless of circumstances. One way is to clear subconscious material. Every subconscious hindering or blocking belief that you clear out opens your…
ByGiora Carmi
In two drawings that I did one after the other, though, with a day in between, there was a yellow part that seemed to be pushed away by the other colors. It was as if the yellow wanted to dance, but the other colors danced there and pushed the yellow away. Do you see that?…
ByGiora Carmi
OK, my friends. I know it is strange. I started this blog a year ago, promising to show you how I heal my body from a terrible nerve pain, resulting from a certain neuropathy, a condition that modern medicine does not know how to heal. I went from number one to number fifty-eight and before…
ByGiora Carmi
At 4 AM once more, something tells me to go to the studio to draw. What comes out surprises me, as other drawings did. Even though many of the shapes I use in my drawings remind me of plants I usually do not draw flowers as the subject of the drawing. But here the shapes…
ByGiora Carmi
It is 4 AM. My body trembles from soles to neck. All the nervous system trembles everywhere: In the heart, in the feet, in the stomach, in the neck. As if I am sitting in a truck while the strong engine is working. I had this happen before but this is stronger. I don’t know…
ByGiora Carmi
As a child in wonder With a strong trunk Connected to the ground It makes a circle And grows in all directions It is full of life Creating quite a stir Even places that were broken Grow It looks at the world As a child In wonder It takes its space With grace It dances…
ByGiora Carmi
Twice this night I came to this table, made drawings and went in with words. The nerves are now closer to the surface and burn all the time. Sometimes I can take it and sometimes I can’t. But even when I can’t, I take, because there is nothing that can be done. The salves that…
ByGiora Carmi
I am going through a strange time. On one hand the ability to feel in my feet grows more and more every day. I start having longer periods without pain. It is going to happen. I have brought my psyche to a state that allows my body to heal from Neuropathy and neuropathic pain. I…
ByGiora Carmi
I have been awake for a while. The color of the sky in the little corner of my window starts changing. I sit at the window seat and look toward the east, along the street that leads to the hospital. I see the lights of the emergency cars, big and blinding. I sense the energy…
ByGiora Carmi
Crazy times for me. Not everything is explainable, because reality falls apart. There is going up to a good mood and then an old habitual sadness/bitterness washes over me. Then again the mood turns, this time into wonder and then reality starts falling apart. That’s where I am, folks. Drawing one: The bird Was…
ByGiora Carmi
Like calligraphy As if it is a piece of writing About something intense That faded out About pain that is now breaking apart About new growth That had a hard time growing Because of the weight it carried About an old support That is now Only a shadow of itself About interactions That seem to…
