And that was all it took to break the spell. So this time, I began simply with color, applying favorite shades of turquoise and garnet red, in soft pastel – pure pigment – pure fire – on top of all that black. The subject was so large it intimidated me from even trying.
#Jacks mcnamara inbetween land series#
I had the vessels for 2 paintings waiting for me – 2 sheets of watercolor paper with black gesso arranged just so, a month earlier, when I anticipated beginning a series of works about reclaiming faith in a time of darkness. No need for it to be perfect, or final, or ready for critique.
The time pressure was perfect – show up and make something happen. In an attempt to rekindle my art, I finally set myself the goal of beginning 7 paintings in 7 days. Efficient, functional, and slightly empty. I became very practical – canning apricots, sorting out my finances, designing pdfs, migrating email accounts, building websites, and worrying. In the midst of this summer’s heat and drought, my painting practice went dormant. I jot them down on a scrap of paper, or on the painting itself, and return to later to craft them an articulate home on the page. Often, while I am painting, the words that will become my poems squirt out, unbidden, from the cracks in my consciousness. The tension between chaos and order is palpable. It explores the improbable architecture of vast forces – grief, growth, spirit, space – and the particular details of living things. My painting is not a 7 Step Plan for Success. It is a part of me that revels in discarding rulers, painting music, assembling rain and leaves and cryptic bits of text, dropping ink from different heights to see what will bloom on a slightly damp page, mixing colors like spices and balancing all their tastes. There’s just enough puzzle-solving to keep me engaged, enough interaction with clients to keep me connected, and enough creative freedom to keep me curious and growing.īut what feeds the heart behind all the project management is not linear at all. I make a big chunk of my living as a web designer, and I love it, as a trade – it’s like digital carpentry, or WordPress plumbing. Google docs, grids, timelines, contracts, launch plans. Lately my workdays, by contrast, involve a lot of linear thinking. We need unflinching music in these unrelenting times. It needs rebels and teachers and childrenīirds who are not cartoons or decorations,īirds who are made of bones and blood and songs We are not weapons or numbers or usernamesĪnd people need some kind of sacred to survive Jacks is the subject of the poetic documentary film Crooked Beauty.Ask if your country is addicted to forgettingĪsk if you country is addicted to forgetting Jacks is the co-founder of The Icarus Project, now the Fireweed Collective, offering mental health education and mutual aid through a Healing Justice lens. Co-author of Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness, Jacks is a neuro-creative psychiatric survivor who has toured the US and Canada offering workshops and performances. Jacks is a Lambda literary fellow, and their first book of poetry, Inbetweenland, was released by Deviant Type Press in 2013. Jacks McNamara is a genderqueer poet, parent, artist, activist, educator, performer, and somatic healing practitioner based on the Tewa land called O’ga P’ogeh, also known today as Santa Fe, New Mexico.
#Jacks mcnamara inbetween land professional#
What makes a “good therapist”? Is mutual aid and friendship enough or do we need professional healers? How does sharing your trauma and oppression with clients affect working as a therapist? What about licensing and credentials – can they get in the way of truly helping people? And is a therapist at heart a wounded healer? Can survivors be therapists – and even better at it? Jacks McNamara – poet, trauma healing coach, and co-founder of The Icarus Project – joins Will Hall to discuss the calling to became a therapist/counselor/coach inspired by their own struggles and survivor mutual aid.
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