What is "Beauty Medicine for the World?"

What is "Beauty Medicine for the World?"

My tagline is, "Beauty Medicine for the World." Do you know why I chose that?

In a blog post, Toko-Pa Turner talks about "Beauty-making as medicine." Although she eventually talks about beauty as metabolized grief in her post, I resonate with the idea of "beauty-making as medicine" from a different point of view- as an artist. My favorite line from her blog post is, "There is really only one way to restore a world that is dying and in disrepair: to make beauty where ugliness has set in."
Indigenous groups use the word "medicine" to describe the gifts that someone (or something) brings to the world. The word does not necessarily refer to pharmaceutical medicine, as one might understand it today. From an indigenous view, as I understand it, every single person brings their own medicine to the world, and in doing so, they contribute to making the world a better place. In this way, everyone serves as a healer of some sort.
Your medicine might be that you are an amazing listener, and this helps people heal as they work through their issues. Or perhaps you have an amazing sense of humor, and you bring healing laughter to the people of every room you enter. In my room, I have some amazing original artwork from other people. This artwork moves me so deeply- it stirs something in my soul. It's clear to me that the medicine of these artists oozes through their creative imagery- it definitely heals something in me every time I gaze upon the prints.

Like the artists mentioned above, I believe that one of my healing gifts is to bring beauty to the world through glass and wire work. Of course, my work doesn't capture the interest of everyone- and that's okay. It captures the interest of those who need it, in whom it "sparks joy." And in bringing a little more joy to the people who need it, my art brings a little bit of healing into this fractured world.

That is why I consider my business and what I do, "Beauty Medicine for the World."
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