IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS
Art School, Childhood, Dreams, Childhood Ambitions, Art Therapy, St Mary's Hospital in London, Acute Psychiatry, Memories, Monoprints, States of Mind, Sanity, Insanity, Mental Illness, Revisiting Childhood, In Two Minds, Younger Selves, The Inner Child, The Blind Bird, Disintegration, Raw Energy, Me's, Multiple Personality Disorder, OCD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Angels, Paranoia, Prince Charming
THE LAND OF CHILDHOOD!
About Therapy, Psychiatry and
the roads that lead to and from Childhood...
OUT OF TOUCH (monoprint, A3) £65
After finishing Art School, there was some unfinished business: for most of my childhood I had wanted to be a doctor.
This is not to say I regretted studing Fine Art and Art History. Far from it! Those were supremely happy years and even today my painting is what keeps me sane and 'sound of mind'. Today I also know myself better than I did as a 17 year old faced with a big decision. And I know that I don't have the right personality for coping with life as a doctor in the mainsteam health care system.
And so I decided to train as an Art Therapist instead. I got myself a job in a secondary school here in London, working with children with special needs. As part of the course I did a placement at St Mary's Hospital in Acute Psychiatry. All this to gain as wide a range of experiences as possible.
MEMORIES (monoprint, A3) £65
Training as a therapist requires you do therapy yourself. After all, 'you can only take your clients as far as you have travelled yourself'. So these were the years of dealing with my own mind as well as trying to gain some understanding as to what went on in other people's minds.
These were the years also of living in a small flat. I had no proper studio, but that didn't stop me from carrying on with painting. I switched to smaller work on paper: monoprints (i.e. unique 'one off' prints using oilpaint, that can't be dupllicated) and mixed media.
I found myself producing two kinds of images: images that reflected on states of minds: sanity & mental illness, on the one hand and images that found metaphors for re-visiting my own childhood on the other hand.
IN TWO MINDS (monprint A3) £65
The image of a red house with a chessboard floor started appearing in these images. It looked nothing like the houses I lived in as a child, but it was about revisiting the past. It was the house where my memories live, where my younger selves live on.
This whole series is about visiting the memories and mysteries of the past. That what is known and unknown at the same time. A grown-up woman enters the red house. Finds a child and holds it. The red house with the chessboard floors vanishes. The woman has found the child, her younger selves. It's time to move on. (This series is not for sale)
THE RED HOUSE
INSIDE THE RED HOUSE
THE CHILD INSIDE
HOLDING THE CHILD
THE INNER CHILD
TIME TO MOVE ON
Another symbol appeared in the form of a blind bird. (A pre-cursor of the Bird World Series?) There was a little girl travelling on the back of the blind bird. The blind bird, like the red house, was about the past. Being blind meant the bird focussed on inner worlds, journeys to other dimensions, not the here and now.
Years later I realised that there is name for this: shamanic journeys.
You will find the concept shamanic journeys explained on my new website www.shaman-healer-painter.com. Here you will also find an introduction to other concepts from non-indigenous shamanism.
THE PAST REVISITED
(Period of the Blind Bird)
IN THIS IMAGE THE RED HOUSE AND THE BLIND BIRD BOTH APPEAR
HOW MUCH DEEPER TO DIG? (monoprint A3) £65
Working in Acute Psychiatry was mind-boggling too. It was scary to see how a human mind can become fragmented and disintegrate. The same goes for people suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's, of course. I had the opportunity to work with people suffering from disorders that had only been 'terms in books' before: schizophrenia, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), puerperal psycbosis, bipolar disorder. It was fascinating to see Art Therapy in action, to see that it does work. That some people could draw or paint things they were unable to face or unable to put in words. That sometimes as a therapist one has the responsibility of 'holding something' until someone is ready to deal with it.
DISINTEGRATION I
DISINTEGRATION II
DISINTEGRATION III
(Series of 3 pictures, monoprints, A3 size, £300)
Art Therapy offers a very special dimension in the sense that as well as client and therapist there is a 'third party' in the room: the image (or clay figure, other art object). Like the therapist this object can hold on to things, can act as a container until the time is right for them to be revealed. On the FAQ page I have explained how this is true for my own paintings as well: sometimes it takes years, or an observation from an outsider, for me to suddenly 'see' what's in a painting.
UNANSWERED EMBRACE (monoprint A3) £65
This was a period of exploring states of mind and feelings. I made these images when I was 24-25 years old. I was younger then, still a student. But they have a raw energy that still touches me when I revisit them today. During Open Studio events there is always someone who is moved the most by these prints (that is the feedback I receive when I have them on display).
SO MUCH SADNESS (Not For Sale)
They are not the most comfortable images - they will never be bestsellers!
At first I decided not to include them on my website - but then I changed my mind.
Updating this webpage in the year 2010, these images take on yet another layer of meaning. I am about to finish the shamanic practitioner and over the last year I have started a practice where I see people for shamanic healings and other spiritual (healing) work. I try to use art & creativity as well, so in a sense art therapy has returned to my life. I use those skills, but in different ways.
I have just created a website explaining about the services I offer as a shamanic practitioner:
I feel that I have finally 'come home'. I now know what my path is in life: being a mother, painter and spiritual healer. With gratitude to my spirit guides for guiding me to this place.
Imelda Almqvist,(last updated August 2010)
NOT FEELING MYSELF (monoprint A3) £65
RAGE (monoprint, A3) £85
And the following picture was made using the 'cut offs' and 'leftovers' of this picture:
ME's (monoprint, A3) £65
That unpleasant feeling, as if there are different people living in my skin - just gives an inkling of what might be like to be mentally ill and suffering from, say, multiple personality disorder
The following paintings are about angels. I am in the process of writing a page titled angels for this website, but this page is not ready for visitors yet. Watch this space!
AN ANGEL NO MORE (monoprint A3) £65
Angels were another theme that appeared in this mixed media images on paper. This picture is about how as children growing up in a family we can't seem to escape being allocated roles. The 'family rebel', the 'diplomat', the 'clown' who always entertains the others, the 'family baby' (who never grows up), the 'angel'. This image is about escaping the role, throwing off that straightjacket: an angel no more!
Other angels appeared:
ANGEL CARRYING THE SUN
(monoprint/mixed media A3) £65
CONTEMPORARY ANGEL
(monoprint/mixed media A3) £95
In our society we feel slightly nervous when we see a skinhead. This painting challenges that perception. "Scary" looking people might be angels in disguise
ANGEL (monoprint/mixed media A3) £75
Another comtemporary angel, complete with nose piercing!
THE FROG PRINCE (mixed media, A3) £75
The following two paintings are titled 'The Flowers' and 'The Bees' respectively:
THE FLOWERS (monoprint, A3) £95
&
THE BEES (monoprint, A3) £95
'The flowers and the bees' is an expression that usually refers to something benign, to telling children about the facts of life. Here however the 'flowers' and the 'bees' have turned into something more sinister, into manifestations of paranoid thinking
GROWING INTO YOUR OWN SKIN
(Monoprint, A3) £95
PRINCE CHARMING (monoprint, A3) £95
CLUMSY (monoprint/mixed media, A3) £95
This print is the companion print to Prince Charming.
It was going to be titled 'Princess Charming' - but that didn't sound right...
UNTITLED (SOLD)
There is a painting titled 'Silent But Eloquent' (in the Various Portfolio). It explores the tension between a human figure and the depiction of a doll or tailor's dummy, something that resembles a human but isn't. This print was the first exploration of that theme. Is this a child and doll, is it mother and child or it someone & their younger self?
ME AND MY TOY (SOLD)
THE DAY THE SUN DIDN'T FEEL LIKE RISING
Art School, Childhood, Dreams, Childhood Ambitions, Art Therapy, St Mary's Hospital in London, Acute Psychiatry, Memories, Monoprints, States of Mind, Sanity, Insanity, Mental Illness, Revisiting Childhood, In Two Minds, Younger Selves, The Inner Child, The Blind Bird, Disintegration, Raw Energy, Me's, Multiple Personality Disorder, OCD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Angels, Paranoia, Prince Charming
IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS
