By Jill Brooke
Cydney Chase’s artwork was on display at a Bedford, New York show in a beautiful farmhouse.
Onlookers commented on how her paintings were both contemplative and stirred emotional responses. All of her subject material, whether flora, animal or human, had not only a dreamy quality but also invited people to look deeper into pools of emotions.
“These paintings are not just pretty pictures,” noted guest Sarah Douglas, as she looked at a painting of a frog surrounded by flowers. Yes, looking at it you wonder – or consider – what the frog may be thinking. Which exactly is the point.
“I’m interested in what happens inside,” says Cydney Chase, who is also a songwriter and yoga teacher.
Considering that her mother Jayne Chase is an environmentalist, it is not a surprise that Chase’s work embraces nature. And not only human nature.
Art has often been a door to helping people heal. After all, art therapy is now used to enhance people’s well-being and dig deeper into their psyches. As Dr. Sará King— neuroscientist, medical anthropologist, and founder of Mind Heart Consulting—says, music, art, and creative expressions are portals through which we can activate our power to heal.
It also provides the same experience for the artist.
Looking at life with fresh eyes or sharing an experience becomes therapeutic as well as an opportunity for new perspectives.
“This was a project that made me so happy,” says Chase. It also made others happy and sparked sales as well as smiles.
Jill Brooke is a former CNN correspondent, Post columnist and editor-in-chief of Avenue and Travel Savvy magazine. She is an author and the editorial director of FPD and a contributor to Florists Review magazine.