Falling apart
Around 2000 a number of things in my life all came to a head all at once. I just had a book published, I had closed down a business I had ran successfully since 1980, but subsequently burnt out from, I split up from a marriage of over twenty years and subsequently had a divorce, which also meant moving out of my family home.
Therapy
Through a friends recommendation I had undertaken a series of theraphy sessions of the talking kind. The therapist was wonderful, although I had little money he accepted an oil painting I did as part payment which made it possible. I found the sessions very helpful but something was missing. I discovered I had a very fixated notion on who I was. In other words I had a story about myself which was (a) untrue and (b) not helpful to how I was in the world in a day to day basis.My story meant I suffered a lot from despair and what I can only describe as a kind of low level depression that hung on me like a cold or 'flu that never went away. I described it as like being covered by a wet grey cold blanket. Futhermore this had gone on so long it now felt like 'normal' to me.
Vision Quest
Great now I had a number of vital insights but I still had the 'flu, how to shift it? The theraphy sessions seemed to hit a dead end. No amount of talking or thinking seemed to take me from stuck to unstuck. But during one of the last sessions I remember talking about this stuckness and adding that it would probably take something like a trip to the Amazon to live in the jungle, indeed nothing less than a 'Vision Quest' to some primal part of the planet might enable me to break free.
I left the session with a deep knowing that this is exactly what was needed. It seemed almost impossible right then and there that this could happen as remember, I was almost penniless and was staying with friends. However in the weeks and months to come it did indeed become possible.
Trip to the Amazon Peru
I spent six amazing months living in the Peruvian Amazon basin and in the high Andes, also briefly visiting Brazil and Argentina. But it was in the depths of the jungle (selva), that large shifts within me took place.
Just being in this amazing environment worked it's own magic and deep changes happened all by themselves.
When I returned to Ireland to live in West Cork, a new way of life and being opened up. It has meant for me going from running a business supplying corporations with commercial photography and design, (and burning out in the process), to becoming a full time writer and artist. (You can see some of my art work here). But more importantly it brought about changes in how I am in the world. It has had a positive effect on each and every one of my days. Changes for the better.
Facilitating Sketching Workshop Adventures to the Amazon and Andes and now Ireland
Since that first journey in 2004 I have been back to Peru again. I decided during that trip, from an idea that first arose on my first six months in Peru, I now combine my experience of art and teaching art with exciting trips, adventures to beautiful interesting and exciting places such as the Amazon, the Andes in Peru and now in West Cork, Ireland. Sketching is a more 'informal' way of drawing, fast and spontaneous it lends itself to portability and travel. Drawing Workshops + Sketching + Travel = a wonderful combination!Trails of the Spirit facilitates Sketching Workshop Adventures in Peru and Ireland
