The most transformative healing journey
is to put together your own exhibition
No matter how big or how small your exhibition will be, any person who decides to share his or her artwork to show to the public, is metaphorically getting ready to undress in front of people. And unless you are very comfortable being naked, this can be a very challenging (and also very healing) experience.
This is not easy because, first you need to go through the journey of creation, the one that will make you face what is inside of you that wants to come out and express. Triggers, traumas, insecurities, flow state, fears, pains…everything could be experienced, nothing must. Then comes the moment you decide to put it all together and share it. Daunting, you crazy person. Why would you like to go through this? It is an insanely great experience everyone should really have once in a lifetime. It is a journey in where you discover a lot about yourself (and if you have guidance and support, hopefully also a really fun one).
I remember what happened when I showed to my family my very few first paintings from 2018. One of my family members, who is a psychologist, seemed to be horrified by them. Trying to be polite but not hiding her disproval, I remember she shared something like “Oh wow, there is a lot going on there, eh?” followed by uncomfortable silence. Back then I saw nothing going on, just what it was. I was not trying to analyze or judge my paintings, they were just there. They would come out of me without any need of explanation or wanting to be liked.
Here below the photo of my very first atelier in Hamburg and the pieces that terrified my family.
When I look at this collection now, I feel the pain. I had a need to break free from something I was blocking but that my art was not censoring. What I know for sure is that other people could feel me. It was hard times, I had just met my mentor in Miami and my life was kind of collapsing. My job, my boyfriend at the time. Everything didn’t make any sense, but art was there for me to safe me from my own mind.
At this point you might be thinking “ok, so every time I paint something, people are going to see me fully…” Yes, now you get the point of getting naked in front of others. The truth is that I never managed to hide behind my art, my artwork speaks very loud. The question is: Is there any need to hide? I believe in the beauty of sharing our worlds and resonating with each other.
18th of May 2019. This was the date of my first exhibition ever. We were hosted by friends who had a beautiful space in the ground floor, big window. “It was all a dream” was the title. It wasn’t random. I got inspired by a neon sign I saw in my last trip to Miami. I was there with my mentor and he just got me the most insane ice cream, when I looked up and I saw this sign and I immediately understood. I understood something I can’t explain. This was one of the very first omens that I concisely remember. The paintings that were part of this very first exhibition came out of the heartbreak I suffered during and after my “Miami experience”, the one that unlocked the artist inside of me and made me level up to leave a life behind that I did not want to live anymore. It felt like if one day I had just woken up from that dream. Now the sign made sense! Time to let go. The paintings were acknowledgment to the journey, the exhibition was the closing point to the experience, to the experiment and to the learnings that came with it.
Now you know why, from my perspective, putting together an exhibition is the healing journey. It is because it feels like finishing a chapter of the book, submitting a thesis or hosting a presentation of your journey to learn something about you, to level up, to unlock a door. Why would this matter to others? Because in the end we are all going through life experiences and we all might have felt something similar, from our creations we can all connect to others and get sometimes the little message or reminder we need.
www.sabela.art
Upcoming exhibition:
“Where is the Love” 23.07.25 - 09.08.26 Fabrik der Künste, Hamburg