Art as a Personal Journey
Art as a Personal Journey
by Pamela Paine | Watkins Glen, NY
In the days leading up to my most recent walk on the Camino de Santiago, I began engaging with the arts as a means of better identifying and processing my feelings related to the experience.
Each evening, I composed haikus to capture and communicate my take-aways from the day. Sometimes, I also created quick sketches in an effort to preserve a particularly special memory.
I didn’t share these attempts with others; rather, they served as personal stimuli for attending more closely to my surroundings and internal responses. As an amateur artist (in both skill level and practice), the private nature of these activities removed them from an evaluative context, freeing them to serve their purpose as aids for personal reflection and growth.
When I returned from my walk, I completed a painting of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Preparing this painting served as a moment of catharsis, synthesizing, and expressing my feelings about arriving in that golden city.
I received such pleasure from these activities that I plan to incorporate art into all of my journeys going forward.
This artwork was featured in our Winter 2024 issue of La Concha. The theme was “The Artist’s Way”, and you can find the full issue in our archive here.