Growing through artistic expression
“Trying to externalize experiences by painting, writing, etc. helps us to understand them and to be more receptive. Being receptive and willing to change and grow makes one most alive I think – more vulnerable to both pain and joy.” – John Busby (Drawing Birds, Christopher Helm Publishers, 2004)
Drawing portraits
When I draw people I want to see into their depths and try to capture it on paper. This enlivens me and feels like is a stretching out in love to the person.
Presentations and teaching
Metaphor and the Self: A Role for the Arts in Understanding Suffering and Treating the Person in Distress, International Neuroethics Conference, Brain Matters 3: Values at the Crossroads of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, October 24-25, 2012
“The process of contemplative art” for the Contemplative Painter’s Guild, September 27, 2023.
“Awe, Beauty and Longing” ECVA via Zoom Oct 11, 2023
“How can the arts help us to care for those in distress? Revealing the heart of the human person”. Rosemead School of Psychology, California, Nov 28, 2017
Enhancing a Sense of Spiritual Connection through Poetry in a Secular Context. University College London. Institute for Advanced Study, Senate House, June 29, 2012.
Neuroethics, the Arts and the Nature of the Human Person, Medical Humanities Conference, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, September 29-30 2011.
Visual Art: Insights on the nature of the self in health and disease. Opening of the Gelbke Art Center, Hiram College, February 2008.
“Art and Imagination as Doorways”, Keynote and Workshop for the Nevola Symposium, Dartmouth Medical School, Augusta, Maine, June 7, 2004.
How the arts inform our understanding: Media as a Tool for Change, Conference on Stigma, Mental Illness, and the Media, National Institute of Mental Health, Washington D.C., July 29-30, 2002.
Perspectives: Art, Science and Spirituality taught over multiple semesters at Western Michigan University Honors College and Hiram College
Making Art
I have created for cover art for books
I share work online:
My work has been selected for local area shows.
I have enjoyed being a teaching assistant and mentor in an online art school and leading an online group of artists in monthly sharing and reflection.
Article
“Now bounded, now immeasurable: Perspectives on time in disability, in suffering, and at end of life.” click here to view Underwood L, Medical Humanities (2007) 33: 11-15.