Imaginative Lens
Past Life as a Painter
Fun fact: I have a past life as a painter. Oil on cotton duck canvas. As a very small child, my parents (both college art professors) taught me how to see the world through an intuitive and imaginative lens. Through this lens I studied life by drawing, painting, experimenting with clay; I've been working with my hands for as long as I can remember. I spent my undergrad earning a visual arts degree while modeling for life drawing classes, which I continued to do for years after graduation.
In my late 20s I flowed into producing sound art through writing poetry and sculpting ambient music with synthesizers. It was this transition to writing that shifted me into a career as a copywriter. Like many other creative millennials, I really wanted to integrate my artform with my means of living so I could exist in the oneness of my truth, as “getting paid to make art” was blossoming into the epitome of success for the contemporary creative.
As a copywriter, the swift current of corporate marketing subsumed my focus, and my artistic practice turned into “content creation” to sell products and services. I lost a sense of commitment to my work and started to question what my role as an artist meant. Time spent in self-reflection elucidated a new understanding of my creative process: no matter what medium I choose, my work will always embody a quality of transformation and insightful perception, for myself and for those around me.
The convergence of this self-reflection and a downpour of sudden, life-altering circumstances regarding my genetic and overall health (also a growing resentment towards computer screens) brought me to massage and bodywork therapy.
Becoming a Certified Massage & Bodywork Therapist in Asheville
Becoming certified as a licensed massage and bodywork therapist (LMBT) was the path I chose to better understand my body with hopes of preventing future illness. I wanted to know more about the source of my mysterious pain; the organ systems and their scientific connections to lived experience; and to find more support around my life-long suspicion that the body can heal itself.
Most importantly, I wanted to come back into my intuitive and imaginative lens that I clearly lost sight of. Considering the inherited rituals of my upbringing–studying the body through drawing, painting, modeling; studying the psyche through writing poetry and sound performance–the life-long exposure to anatomy and psychology has no doubt informed my work as a massage therapist.
I bring a visceral, somatic, and aesthetic perspective to my practice. The bodywork is artful, in the sense that an artist must fine-tune their listening capabilities, observation skills, and inner knowing to shape an impactful and intimate experience for others. In this context of bodywork, I feel like my creative practice has taken on a sense of community and public service, as this has become my unique method for sharing my art with others in a meaningful way.
An Artful, Somatic Massage & Bodywork Experience
A client recently mentioned to me that experiencing my massage felt like being invited into an artistic journey, versus receiving treatment from a trained technician. So I ask myself, does a bodyworker have to be an artist to be a talented practitioner?
No. I honestly don’t think so. The artfulness that I bring to the massage table is simply my unique approach. It is this artfulness that I feel deeply connected to and that I’ve witnessed as an invaluable tool for helping every client I interact with fully feel into their inner knowing as they explore their highest version of self.