Art Is About Being Whole

A Memoir

Cindy Ingram

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Paperback

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English

Compassionate Mind Collaborative
31 October 2023

Individual artists, art monographs; Memory improvement & thinking techniques

Art, like love, just is.

Giving, Receiving, Asking

for nothing. Just whole.

In that pristine moment of being with the art in front of me, an expansive swell fills my chest. Tears spring to my eyes. The art transfixes me, and I cannot look away. Sometimes my legs feel weak, wobbly. My heart and breathing speed up to keep up with my emotion. It's not an out-of-body experience but a full-body one.

Looking at art is my sacred journey. It is my spiritual practice. It is my meditation cushion, and my temple, and my altar, and my pew. It is my challenger. It is my refuge. Art is one of my tools for self-development, just as much as all of the books I've read. I don't look at art to learn about the art. I look at art to learn about myself. I look at art to learn about the world and my place in it. I look at art in order to fully understand and embody who I am, who I want to be, and how I want to be. My body slows, my mind slows, and I can just be with-with art and with myself. The art has changed me.

A MEMOIR BUILT WITH ART

Art Is About Being Whole: A Memoir explores Cindy Ingram's journey of finding who she is underneath all the layers of protection. Each essay incorporates a work of art that encapsulates growth experienced at pivotal moments in the author's life. Each piece of art is a touch point to come back to again and again as she acknowledges where she has been and where she is headed. From a Great White Shark swimming stealthily beneath burnout to a futuristic painting of a mask connecting the author with the humanity of her long-lost biological father to a succession of painted eyes clarifying her spirituality, each artwork helps Ingram put words and images to thoughts, feelings, and transformations that often feel too hard to explain.

How do you explain a feeling? That's what artists do.

MY HOPE FOR YOU: A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

I write this book to illustrate how art is more than just something to appreciate or learn about or look at, but that it has the power to heal, give clarity, hold space, and do magic. In my darkest times, deep in grief, anxiety, depression, and shame, art has always been there for me. It was how I experienced the fullness of life and the depths of connection before I did the work of coming to a place of wholeness. A place where I feel like I know and love who I am, without shame, without feeling the need to pretend to be something else, without the constant need to fix my broken self. Using works of art to show this is a natural choice because I have dedicated my entire life to sharing the magic of art with anyone who will listen, and now, that is you.

I hope as you read these pages and be with these artworks, you find a safe place for you-safe with the art that I explore in the book and safe with me as I share my heart with you.

By: Cindy Ingram
Imprint: Compassionate Mind Collaborative
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9798986941912
Pages: 218
Publication Date: 31 October 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Art Is About Being Whole: A Memoir

"""A song of praise, celebration, and invitation-into the power of art... Cindy Ingram's memoir shares her story as a testament to the ways a full embrace of art can heal our injured places, illuminate our uncertainties, and open doors of experience that we never imagined."" -Eric Booth, Founder of International Teaching Artist Collaborative and author of Making Change and Tending the Perennials ""A beautiful and raw account of the power of art to heal, give clarity, hold space, and do magic. Let this book be the delightful punch in your gut that reminds you to listen to your heart. Settle in and get comfortable. It's impossible to put down."" -Dr. Sarah Ackermann, Executive Director for Teaching Innovation at Ball State University and Supervision and Administration Division Director-Elect for the National Art Education Association ""In her visually delicious memoir, Cindy Ingram reminds us that we all have the capacity to open our hearts, to be touched and held by art in a way that helps us meet, love, and heal ourselves. A beauty-full and relatable memoir for any person craving to connect to the wholeness of true self... you might even swoon. I know I did."" -Allison Crow, Coach & Author of Unarmored: Finding Home in the Wild Edges of Being Human ""Ingram captivates the reader with her raw vulnerability and poetic words, soothing, disrupting, energizing, and helping us to re-awaken those parts of ourselves that are transformed by encounters with works of art... A story of healing, finding the self, and of those in-between, not-quite-tangible experiences with art that move the spirit."" -Kate Wurtzel, Ph.D., Artist, Researcher, and Assistant Professor of Art Education ""A profound testament to the transformative power of art in one's life... and an invitation to explore the vast landscapes of your own emotions through the lens of art. In its pages, you'll discover that there is no one truth with art, but rather a multitude of truths waiting for you to embrace."" -Jacob Nordby, Author of The Creative Cure: How Finding and Freeing Your Inner Artist Can Heal Your Life ""Art making and art teaching at its best derive from deep personal explorations, creative experiences, and observations. Art Is About Being Whole defines meaningful connections between artmaking and being a whole human being: a caring, well-rounded, and creative soul."" -Dr. George Szekely, Author, Professor Emeritus, and Area Head of Art Education at University of Kentucky, Lexington ""This book as a way finder, a guiding compass for others embarking on their journey of self-exploration and transformation. So, they, too, can celebrate and claim themselves unbroken and whole."" -Glenis Redmond, Author of The Listening Skin"