Jana Rivers-Norton

When I began the MAAT program at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in the fall of 2018, I remember feeling hesitant as an artist and as a returning graduate student, out of my element since I was one of the oldest of my cohort. Yet, little by little, as I connected and became close to other students and faculty members, my sense of becoming an emerging artist and art therapist began to blossom and eventually bloomed into an embodied state of flourishing.

With each piece of artwork created, a part of my soul opened and began to speak visually as I saw myself more and more clearly, and felt a growing enlivenment deep within, a reveal of what Jung would call my true self. The art therapy profession had called to me for over 40 years before I allowed myself to embrace it. Now it has given way to a ripening of joy and a profound knowing that I never imagined possible.

Art making has become a way of living for me, for strengthening my inner core and celebrating the sacredness of life. Yet, art has also shown me how to transform life’s more difficult moments, into the potential for continued growth. Flourishing while Enduring, as the theme for our art show, mirrors how my own life has unfolded as I have faced my mother’s slow disappearance into the morass of Alzheimer’s, and my own frightening diagnosis of heart failure. My artwork, rather than reflecting the burden of grief and fear, envisions the welcoming of a genuine existence, and the beauty of thankfulness for all the gifts I have been blessed with.