Messages from the Past

I thought that I would share with you a piece of art that I did a few years ago (about 2003, I think). It came out of a "Transactional Analysis" therapy session with a counsellor and reflects the messages that I felt I was told as a child (directly or indirectly), the challenges that I was starting to make of those messages and how I was trying to move on from those messages. (Wiki has a detailed explanation of TA if you want to know what the thinking is behind this behavioural theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis).

Just to explain this mixed media piece, I put the messages behind tracing paper to show how they can be obscured, but the meaning still seen, and the silver foil represents the silver lining that challenging brings when at the time I felt that I couldn't cope for the weight and pressure of the messages. The paper for the top half (the replacement messages) has threads in it representing the threads of new ideas moving together to form the replacement messages. I actually made two of this piece, one of which I gave to the counsellor as she was leaving the profession to thank her for being my guide, as I then started to see this as a journey that I had to make but on which I would be guided sometimes on part of the way.

By sharing this, I'm actually challenging my controlling side as that part usually keeps such personal expressions (as art is) to itself, for fear of rejection or others claiming things as their own. But again I choose to let go, and see where this opportunity takes me...