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 a strange period of time. I am waiting to start a series of workshops about intuition. I had an idea about financing the book that I have written. I mentioned it to my partner and she rejected the idea very strongly. This stopped me in my tracks. I became frozen for a few…
ByGiora Carmi
I see my mother suddenly in my imagination. I feel so sad for her bad experiences. Mom, I say, I think you can go free now. I don’t hold anything against you any more. I know what you had gone through. I know you did not know what you were doing. I forgave you…
ByGiora Carmi
Remember the javelin in my foot? So when you have such a strong pain, what do you decide? Maybe you decide that you don’t want to feel the wounded foot? It is so strong that you don’t want to feel it. You’d do anything you can to not feel it. Well, what about becoming numb?…
ByGiora Carmi
I have a terrible night with the pain. It is strong all the time and does not stop, in spite of all my tricks. Maybe I sleep a little here and there. Not much. The pain is strong all the time. I sit and do EFT. This is a strong technique and usually it makes…
ByGiora Carmi
One drawing can have two different meanings, and both can be right. If I look at the composition, it looks like different characters, each being busy with his own plan, work or play. They belong to some collaborative effort. They are different from each other but somehow live in the same space and do some…
ByGiora Carmi
It came to me to draw the nerves. It happened when I was in pain and drew, of course, without knowing what I was doing. I did not draw the pain as before. When I finished I thought that it looked like nerve cells that were trying desperately to connect and it did not work….
ByGiora Carmi
I feel strange. I sit down to the brush and the paints. I let myself be guided by my sense of beauty alone and do not know what I am doing until I feel that it is done. Living house on the water This is what the words say: All I want is To play…
ByGiora Carmi
Right after posting ‘The Dark Pursuers‘ I have to move the car for parking regulation. I double park where the police do not ticket and go to the Hungarian Pastry Shop, across the street from the Cathedral of St. John The Divine. I sit in the deepest and darkest corner, and this is why I…
ByGiora Carmi
I was waiting. We were in a big Salvation Army store, far away from home. I found a huge comfort chair near the entrance and sat in it. The pain was unbearable. I had to do something. I had my small pad, markers and color pencils. The first drawing looked very much like pain drawings…
ByGiora Carmi
We are visiting our grandchild, Luca, for two days. The pain prevents me from walking, when everybody walks on the beach. I do some drawings while there. One of them seems more significant: A daring muscle The words: Here is a daring muscle Pushing something away But that thing says You don’t want to…
ByGiora Carmi
The workshop was successful. I did many workshops or presentations before. I always prepared well and knew what I would say and do. I always left enough things undecided, so that intuition will be able to come into the talking and doing too. But I also had worries about success, about people loving me in…
ByGiora Carmi
The day after the eight drawings day I did two drawings related to the feeling in the throat. Here is the first: And here are the words: The light is behind it always. Look at me mommy What is it? The water that was good and strong The water that we admired Is…
