Upon graduation from college, I searched for a meaningful way of using my art and did my own career counseling through reading and working as an occupational therapy aide. I read an amazing book by Joni Eareckson, a woman who learned to be an artist despite experiencing quadriplegia from a spinal cord injury. Her occupational therapist showed her how to use a mouth stick to paint and draw. She became an accomplished healing artist.

A patient on the mental health unit where I was working saw that I was reading Joni’s book. She offered me her ticket to her church’s mother-daughter banquet where I was able to actually meet Joni, the banquet speaker. This experience inspired me to return to graduate school at Western Michigan University to study occupational therapy. Some people in my life were afraid it would be too difficult for me, but I listened to my own voice, followed my heart, and ventured far from my home with my memories to climb by.

Memories to Climb By

The trees of my childhood created a fertile place for imagination and exploration. They hold images of safely swaying above the world and being embraced by nature. Steadfastly they stood, a boundary for our neighborhood ballfield. The challenge of the climb was always there. Generously giving a gift of a new world view, they never asked for anything in return.

One day someone decided we needed more shopping. They bulldozed a path, ignoring the aesthetics by leaving shale, like a hugh scar. A background of metal cages and Taco Bell try to pierce the woods. The world view now includes Super Kmart.

Somehow they endure. Time is on their side. They gradually begin to camouflage the scar; always giving me memories to climb by.

by Susan Sholle-Martin

Memories to Climb By - watercolor

The first semester of graduate school, I faced the challenge of experiencing a concussion from being in a head on car collision caused by an uninsured drunk driver. I discovered later in life that it probably also caused a misalignment of my pelvis and spine. The next year during my occupational therapy fieldwork in Denver, Colorado, I broke a metatarsal bone in my left foot. Despite these challenges, I earned a master’s of occupational therapy degree. And I also met a wonderful group of graduate classmates who became lifelong friends.

While at Western Michigan University, I also took a graduate watercolor class with Lou Rizzolo, Professor of Art, who became one of my most important art mentors. He supported my development as an artist as I began embracing art as a multi-dimensional, multi-sensory process. I played the piano and started to listen to the classical piano music by Chopin that I loved. While meditating to the music and listening with eyes closed I envisioned it in my mind, and then created it as a visual form of art. (see Chopin watercolor collage below). In this class I also expanded my watercolor paintings to include more textures and multi-media materials. This experience was another type of transformation art and lead to a Transforming Music Series in 2002.

Chopin Opus 10 No. 3 - watercolor collage

In undergraduate college I had created the series of paintings of Ella’s Freedom, transforming my grandmother’s comb into a bird to symbolically represent her life and express my emotions. In graduate college, I was learning to transform music and emotion into a visual art form. This was a meditative experieince that was preparing me for creating the future SOUL MAIL meditation process. I was using my love of music to support the quieting of my mind, to create a state of relaxaton, and to give myself time to allow images to emerge during the meditation. I was learning how music taps into and activates right-brain functions which are intuitive, feeling-centered and visual. I was being in a receiving, observational mode, and opening up and letting things flow. The visual images that were appearing became inspiring to me. I was able to let go of control, go with the flow and trust myself. Then I could experience the calming effects of the beauty I observed and begin the process of creating the art.

Professor Rizzolo also served as a research and thesis advisor for myself and fellow classmate/artist Mary Ellen Meyer. We partnered to investigate how group art therapy could improve self-concept in people following a stroke. This required us to develop multi-sensory art activities as part of our research project.

While on my occupational therapy fieldwork experience in Denver, Colorado, I met my future husband Tony Martin, a teaching tennis professional and college coach. He swept me onto a dance floor. I was stepping into the adulthood stage of life.

Continue to Chapter 4: Learning to Embrace Who and What I Love