Lezlie Amara Piper

The theme of this issue is deeply important, personal and of the moment for me as Art (yes, with a capital) and all of her processes are perhaps my strongest healing modality. When all else is topsy-turvy, Art is a steady medicine for me.

I am currently healing from a complex brain injury that influences my ability to read, walk, exercise, communicate, be in a noisy place, drive, use a computer, be in the sun, etc., and Art is a spiritually, physically, and emotionally, soothing activity. The experience of making Art for me is very similar to that of being in nature. When making Art, I often step out of the left brain of judgements, constrictions, linear thinking, and activities and into the present moment of the right brain of sensing, feeling, and a realm where the magic of regeneration and re-patterning is real. It is a oneness very similar to meditation. In this process of healing, I have many moments of feeling lost. The act of making art very concretely soothes my nervous system and increases my ability to perform tasks. It quite literally creates new neural pathways that heal the damage caused by head trauma. It helps not to “find me” but to remind me I am already found, despite the loss of parts of me that may never return.

When I am not making art to heal, I am making art to explore, taste, feel, and revel in, and aside from my selfish desires, I seek to share that experience with others or at least invite the viewer/experiencer to be opened into a deeper sensing of their own internal, complex, and sacred, selves—if not to be transformed, then to be delighted. I have used mixed media, assemblage, and acrylic in the pieces in this issue. All of the art has been made since my head trauma in 2019. Quite honestly, the head trauma has opened new ways of seeing, and this work is the result.