by Jerry Slayton

Our March 2024 Artist of the Month is Lila Milam-Kast. Lila has been our intern for six weeks now, and in that time, we’ve had many opportunities to talk “art.” Though Lila is a multi-medium artist, it came out in our conversation that she considers her primary medium to be color. And in looking through her paintings I would have to agree. I’m drawn to her use of light and shadow, and the drama created through complementary and analogous hues.

In her oil painting “Hamilton Pool” (above), she contrasts dark shadowy reds and oranges in the cave at the top of the painting with the pastel blues and greens of the sky and ground. The composition evokes a sense of emergence as the light emerges from the dark, or lies just beyond the dark. In reflecting on this piece, Lila recalled that she started it during the 2020 COVID lockdown, a time when we were all a bit uneasy as to what the future held. For her, this painting became a metaphor for that unease, but also for the reemergence of nature during that time. The color in the painting builds the mood or soul of the piece. It’s both naturalistic and symbolic. Nicely done!

Lila’s work can also take a more diaristic and directly personal approach. In her piece “Reaching for Help” (above), two delicately-drawn hands are depicted in charcoal as they gesture towards one another. The tones of the background are subtle and come from the combination of ornate fabrics collaged to the surface. Color in this piece is reserved for a bright burst of red, a handprint that seems half-present. This collage, like her Hamilton Pool painting, is evocative of many emotions. A piece like this speaks to the other side of why Lila makes art, the healing side. I think this can best be summarized in her own words:

“Art heals anxiety, suffering, and depression. It brings people together, helps them communicate when words will not suffice, and forms bonds. Ultimately, it brings peace to the soul, if only for a few moments of distraction, by simply allowing the mind to rest for a little while. Science has shown this. Psychology shows this. People have felt this for a very long time. Ask a doodler why they doodle, and they will tell you the same thing. Why do we do art? Because it feels good.

“I’ve always done art as long as I remember, but to be honest, a lot of it stopped when I got it completed in my head and not […] onto the paper. When I got sick, I went to sleep, deep down inside, and only recently have I begun to enjoy putting my thoughts back down and working out the problems of the making of it. That energy, that joy, is a process of puzzling out how something works. It takes a mindset that a chronically ill person with very few spoons often doesn’t have. I understand that I lost that now. I forgive myself for it and have returned to making art again.”

We are glad to have you back, Lila. Good luck on all your future art and career endeavors.

Read Lila’s blog, “To Straddle the Line,” here!

by April Sullivan

Our February 2024 Artist of the Month is Austin artist Diane Perez. I have known Diane for several years. Her art takes many forms, such as black and white silhouette portraits, colorful abstracts, graffiti style, and so much more. She paints in her free time and loves doing commissions. Only recently did we realize that we were born one day apart in the same year. We both turned 50 years old at the end of December 2023 and first talked about how that feels.

Diane said, “I feel fabulous about turning 50! It gives me such a great feeling of gratification to look back to the past 25+ years of me creating my art, and seeing how much it’s grown.

“My medium is primarily acrylic. I started creating art in 1994. So it has been 30 years… The love of creating is what inspires me to paint. I think of a vision for what I would like to create, and then I go for it.”

She went on to tell me more about her artistic process.

“Before I actually lay anything onto a blank canvas, I come up with a ‘vision’ for what I would like create. I research shapes and color combinations and study them. I then begin to sketch out what I have visualized, and once I have my sketch fully finished, I go into it with different colors, trying to find the perfect combinations for what I am trying to accomplish. If it is a silhouette sketch, I simply use black acrylic paint to bring it out.”

Next, we talked about how her disabilities impact her art and her world. Diane is an artist who is DeafBlind.

“What I would like for people to know about the DeafBlind community, is that there are so many that are talented in one way or another. I believe there is a ‘stigma’ attached to the term ‘DeafBlind.’ That those who are DeafBlind are limited or simply do not have the means or capability of creating art. Far from the truth.”

Diane also lives with mental health challenges.

“Because my mental health comprises of highs and lows, I find that my artwork can play into the ‘depressed’ stages of my mental health as well as the ‘highs’ of my mental health. In my ‘depressed’ stages I find it harder to be inspired with something to create. But I push myself to create something anyways; otherwise, I will feel more depressed… To be honest, most of those pieces are my least favorite. I like some of them, but not many. When I am in the ‘high’ stages, my artwork tends to take off at a higher speed. Like, sketching comes with less effort. Those are usually my favorite pieces.”

So what is Diane working on now and how can you keep up with her art career?

“Right now, I am currently working on a 4-piece canvas set of ‘Flamenco’ dancers. Each one is in a different dance pose, and they are different colors. Red, blue, green, and gold yellow.

“Right now, I do not have a website or Instagram. Most of my work is on my Facebook page, ‘Gigi Productions.’ I just started the page, so I don’t have a lot of my work there yet. Still a work in progress.”

We finished with her advice to other artists with disabilities.

“My advice to any artist, with a disability or not: KEEP creating. No matter what your style of art is. Whether or not you are selling it or not, KEEP creating. Creating is medicine for the soul. It is your ‘quiet’ space. Creating feeds your mind, and it is therapy for different emotions you may be feeling. Creating can be symbolic to the ‘essence’ of who you are. So KEEP creating.”

As I write this blog, I am looking at our most recent horoscope from The Austin Chronicle. It reads:

“CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Before poet Louise Glück published her first book, Firstborn, it was rejected by 28 publishers. When it finally emerged, she suffered from writer’s block. Her next book didn’t appear until eight years after the first one. Her third book arrived five years later, and her fourth required another five years. Slow going! But here’s the happy ending: By the time she died at age 80, she had published 21 books and won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. By my astrological reckoning, you are now at a phase, in your own development, comparable to the time after Glück’s fourth book: well-primed, fully geared up, and ready to make robust progress.”

Watch out world, Diane and I are in our prime, geared up, and ready to make robust progress!

Or perhaps not.

It turns out that sweeping change in many areas of our day-to-day routine is difficult for us humans to manage. From school, to work, to leisure activities, and now the holidays, we have all shifted our normal routines in order to stay safe and protect others. These shifts in routine require us to rebalance our lives and examine our mental health. I have felt the need for this re-balancing many times throughout the pandemic and went in search of ideas that could inform my new routines and mental health.

What better place to start than with a Ted Talk by Richard J. Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and the founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds. His research focuses on mental health and the qualities that promote human flourishing. The Ted Talk lists four mental challenges that face our society today:

• Distractionability
• Loneliness
• Negative Self-talk
• and Loss of Purpose.

Many of these resonated with me, but instead of focusing on these challenges, I want to direct our attention to Dr. Davidson’s Four Pillars of a Healthy Mind, and explore some practical considerations.

• Awareness: Dr. Davidson describes awareness as, “knowing what our minds are doing or thinking about.” This directly relates to the challenge of distractionability we listed above, the act of consistently being distracted. Mindfulness practices like a sitting meditation can give our minds the opportunity to re-balance in a calm and quiet environment. Practical considerations for increasing awareness might be putting our phones away, monitoring our screen time—especially before bed, and scheduling screen breaks throughout our workday. These simple breaks can create milestones, or events, that mark our day.
• Connection: Kindness, appreciation and compassion for ourselves and others connect us to our environment and community. Taking the time to notice and appreciate our place in the world can combat that challenge of loneliness that we mentioned before. A breathing exercise that I learned recently, called the Wim Hof method, helps me connect with my breath and appreciate something I would ordinarily take for granted. I’ve included a link to the exercise here.  (Warning, this technique may not be suitable for everyone. Listen to your body and adapt the technique as needed.)
• Insight: This pillar speaks to the negative self-talk we listed above as a challenge. He goes on to say, “A heathy mind entails changing our relationship to our personal narrative. Not so much changing the narrative itself, but changing our relationship to it.” Giving ourselves the room to rethink the negative stories we tell ourselves can shift our perspective and allow for increased mental health. This is a sensitive topic for us all, but for me sharing my story in safe spaces with friends and family has given me the opportunity to hear how I describe myself to others, and has provided some insight.
•  Purpose: Purpose in our personal lives and work drives us toward the future. Dr. Davidson challenges us to include more of our day-to-day activities, such as taking out the garbage and doing the laundry, into this sense of purpose. Doing this can change purpose from something that is aspirational to something that we achieve on a daily basis. Take a look at four ways to cultivate purpose here.

This article is intended to be a starting point, as I am not a professional in the field, and simply a person looking to grow. We can all benefit from mindfulness practices, and I encourage us to think of these practices as milestones on our road to mental health. Explore more Healthy mind innovations here.

About this Event

My name is Rene Morales, the organizer behind this event and director/producer/writer of “Ode To Living”, an original short film inspired by the instrumental music of Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons”.

Reception starts at 6pm. Food and drinks on own expense. Program begins right at 7pm!

Featured in the Program:

• Panel consisting of the creative team behind the original work.
• Screening of original short film/music video “Ode To Living”.
• Open forum discussion and testimonials over film and subjects of suicide prevention and mental health with audience.
• VSA and NAMI Texas representatives present resources meant for outreach and support for victims and those close to victims.
• Booths will be set up for further information on the great and inspiring organizations poised to remove the stigma of mental health in society’s view.

This event is meant to bring this important issue to the forefront as I feel that it doesn’t get enough coverage. Suicide affects a wide spectrum of people, regardless of social status, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. Because of this, it is crucial to come together and realize that we aren’t alone in our own struggles and that we should fight to live not only for ourselves, but for those who carry our same weight on their shoulders. All are welcomed to this night! Feel free to spread the word and bring your friends and loved ones to this special night!