Joanna and Pamela (Oct 1994) at Bodywriting almost 20 years ago!
Joanna Coburn participated in the very first Bodywriting Retreat in 1994! Since the opening of the Texas Studio she has been my Bodywriting helper every time. Joanna lives in Austin, has a sweet family; a 5 year old son and a wonderful husband. She works for Dell, but most importantly, she is one of my three SISTERS!!
Ever since I began expressive arts work Joanna has been interested in the field. She has Pamela Underwood Studios 6 month Expressive Arts Facilitator Training in Poway, Ca and has been leading Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way Groups through Expressive Arts in Austin since 2010. Joanna is an amazingly creative and compassionate teacher. One day she will become certified to be aBodywriting® Facilitator. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this- though I have already written the text book! Any ideas out there?
For the October 2012 Bodywriting® Retreat Joanna brought an unfinished print. She finished it by the end of the retreat -and what an amazing, restful, nurturing painting she is! The name of the painting is “Woman at Rest”- at least that is the name I remember! Here is a sequel of how she developed. Joanna was pregnant with her son when she first did the body print.
As you can see the print began vertically /standing with swirling energy all around the body print with a hint of a stairway behind. The image holds her hand on top of her head as her hair flys back behind her. Her nipples are firey red and her other hand is holding onto her belly. There is aots of energy in this orientation for me. The third photo above shows the painting as it begins to shift, just as Joanna was asking what the image needed from her next.
Joanna had not worked with this image for a year or so. She was re-entering the painting from a very different place than when she was 7 months pregnant with her now 5 year old boy. Yet, she had a strong connection to this painting and was compelled to continue. She dialoged in her journal with the image and asked what it needed now from her.
The print needed to rest. She needed to lie down and so Joanna turned her on her side, painted a strong line up against her back as a surface to rest on and then they began their work again. The swirling energy became a soft comforter on which to lay. Her hand was now resting on her head and belly with her hair draping over the edge of the pillow in repose. She wanted a headboard to give the bed a strong structure. Flowers began to emerge on top of the headboard, one by one, whose blooms dipped down toward the woman. The last thing I saw develop was the soft, feminine transparent dust ruffle juxtaposed to the strong blue stripes in the background that felt masculine and grounding to me. Ahhhhh. At last, she is at rest.
