Dec 21

Dec 21 A Shmitah Year (Melanie Lewis)

A Shmitah Year:
Healing, Connection, Transformation

During the Covid lockdown in 2020—with its accompanying fear, anxiety, and disappointments—I found it difficult to create art. I essentially took a Shmitah year for myself. I just let my artwork go and tried to heal.

Then in the last few months of 2020, I came across a technique called Neurographic Art, by Russian psychologist Pavel Piskarev. As I understand the technique (which of course, I personalized), lines are drawn with a pen from one side of the paper to the other while thinking of troubling things. Any sharp points created where lines cross are smoothed away with ink. Then, various shapes and color and other manipulations can be connected into the picture, forming a united network.

Here, I thought, was a way to take the energy of my negative feelings and transform them into something positive. And just as we humans are connected to the natural world, an expression of my transformed feelings were connected to whatever this artwork came to be.

To create these paintings, I use, variously, permanent markers, acrylic ink, colored pencils, and colored markers on different surfaces, including gesso board, canvas, and Yupo. My art is abstract, but suggests realistic objects. All things in the picture are connected.

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Melanie Lewis is a retired science educator who now devotes her time to Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, TX, and to creating art. Visit MelanieLewisArt.com and 1-melanie-lewis.artistwebsites.pixels.com to see more of her paintings. This collection is part of our Winter 2021 collection, Shmita Now, guest-edited by Yaira Robinson.