Enjoying Art (again): Ido Vunderink

Yesterday I visited the historical city centre of Woerden. The museum there shows an exposition by local artist Ido Vunderink. He’s an 80 year old who nowadays paints abstract Dutch landscapes and flower arrangements in bright colours:

I was thrilled to discover his work, earlier that morning, while I was still in bed waiting for the cortisol to kick in and start the day. His art reminds me of my own work, when I was so very much inspired by Norwegian mountains and their running waters, and made art there, ten years ago:

Abstract shapes reminding you of something in the real world.
One dark colour, one light and two in between.
Bright, happy colours to lift the spirits in the dark days of Winter.
Intersecting lines, defining planes.
Planes connecting behind other planes.
Lines running beyond their boundaries. Reappearing.

Vunderink is exploring the same things I did! Playing with the same toys!
(Not saying we’re at the same level, I was just starting, he is a master.)

I never got to transport my muse to Holland nor did I manage to reconnect with my teachers at the Jeroen Bosch Academy and talk about any of this. I subsequently dropped out of art school and dropped out of health. I haven’t been able to make art since.

“Evening Light” by Ido Vunderink.
Is that a city scape whose rhythm extends into the sky above? Or are these tulip fields in the Netherlands? With the beach and the sea at the back. It’s whatever you like.

Viewing the works of a kindred artist, who finds inspiration here in Holland, today, fills me with tremendous joy. So, it IS possible to find things here that lead to the same playing field of art. This overcrowded, over-gardened piece of land DOES offer shapes to talk about large spaces and slow time and natural compositions.

The exposition was thrilling. I spend two hours there, sketching the works, examining them close-up, watching from afar, drinking in the colours and following Vunderink’s conversation about composition, colour, contrast. I felt like a fellow-artist and was very happy about it.

For all the bursting colours and abstractions, this was nonetheless my favourite:

“Kruiken”. 2014. Ido Vunderink

The same subjects are still here: lines, shapes, planes, colours. But they all play closer to the chest. The abstraction doesn’t leave you guessing what’s portrayed although the painting is quite high so it’s more about vertical lines than it is about tall jugs.
The colours are similar to each other, you have to stand still and look at it for a bit to appreciate their differences and their interaction.

This painting is magical!
The undersketch is coming through, in purples and olives and intense yellow, while the planes themselves were made so thoroughly opaque and in these fantastic colours! The light and dark contrast is subtle but meaning full. The jug in the middle is the main player but it’s mates are brighter, except for the one at the most right.

Vunderink has signed his name in the wet paint, a lovely way to do that doesn’t interfere with the colours.

Yes. This is the painting I would love to own and look at for the years of my life left. In turn it lifts me up, makes me laugh, makes me contemplate, makes me silent, makes me curious, makes me investigate, makes me want to paint and it makes me … “carefree” is the word I guess.

I’m trying very hard to stay in that moment. To not think about making art myself, picking up where I left off. Not making ANY PLANS. Not thinking about either the future or the past. Not spinning any stories to put my life into some kind of perspective.
Reverse Therapy has me working hard in shutting up my chatterbox of a mind, that sock puppet with its running commentary:

Shut up muppet. We’re here to enjoy the moment. Living in/through the body.

The exposition is held in a very old building that’s very sympathetic with little windows and shutters and wooden winding stairs and hand cut details and little bricks. This added to my joy:

Vunderink’s exposition here runs until the 10th of January.

Reverse Therapy: recovering from ME/CFS

Had my first session last week, a Skype session with therapist Lyn White in the UK. This works.
It’s the way to keep the body (autonomic nervous system) out of Fight or Flight. I’m no longer wired. Instead I’m relaxed, chill, happy. Without pain, without tiredness.

I’ve just spend four days on a road trip and a midwinter wool fair. First day I drove for hours and hours. Second day I stood on my feet in a wool booth and talked to people for 7 hours. Third day the same. Fourth day drove back. All the time was spend with a friend, I was seldom alone.

No crash, no pain. No worries, no strain.
This is unheard of.

I did have my usual insomnia (and then some due to mosquito bites) in the night but I performed wonderful all of the days nonetheless.
I was not overly sensitive to noises, smells or the presence of my friend.

Back home there has been no crash. There was tiredness, of course. There were bouts of head aches because of all the impressions and things I’d seen. A bit of a hoarse throat because of the unusual amounts of talking. My feet tingled.
But I’ve been so cheerful all these days! And the days after, here, back home.

Reverse Therapy and Mickel Therapy are what works for me.

I’m not going to talk about their medical opinions about what ME is. Just know that both therapies give a tool box to keep the nervous system calm.
And whatever their, mine or your own theory is about the relation between nervous system and ME/CFS, keeping the former calm helps to alleviate symptoms of the latter.

I am VERY GLAD to be back in the calm again. I had lost it when life stresses hit us in January/February of this year.
(I had found it in the course of the years I spend at the cabin, alone. Well fed, warm and finally without that stupid ambition. Once I did Gupta Amygdala Retraining I was without symptoms too but the calmness hadn’t ingrained. With Reverse Therapy it has.)

For the past few months I tried DIY Reverse Therapy, having read all the things that have been written about it and understanding its principles and its ideas. But it was not the right way. Having a coach is much more efficient. Because my twittering brain is always trying to keep on top of things it kept getting in the way of actually applying Reverse Therapy. A chatterbox in the head is precisely the thing the nervous system doesn’t need.

Long story short: a whole new world has opened up to me. I’m calm and am experiencing bouts of happyness from the very core of my bones. Symptoms are dwindling. I’m without worries. I had a wonderful weekend with my friend.
I’ve started dreaming about (and planning) holidays.

Reverse Therapy and Mickel Therapy are precisely the thing I need. On top of all the other things I’ve learned to do over the years to support my body:
– take vitamin D because of where I live on the globe
– take extra vit D because my receptors are wonky
– dabble in mB12
– keep levels up from minerals Zinc, Lithium, Magnesium, Molybdenum, Selenium and Iodium
– avoid cruciferous vegetables (onions, kale, garlic etc.)
– supplement hormones I lack (Progesteron, Cortisol)(all body identical in physiological doses)
– supplement Progesteron to counter Estrogen highs during the cycle
– avoid blood sugar spikes and stress and practise sleep (restriction) therapy to sleep through the night
– avoid foods difficult to digest (boiled egg whites, raw food, nuts, leafy vegetables)
– avoid foods that “feel bad” (vegetable oils, caffeine, sugars, fried foods, vanillin, commercial chicken and vegetables that never saw soil or sunlight)
– avoid tiresome people or learn how to deal with them without investing energy
– rest flat for one hour, one hour after the last bite
– eat small portions
– aid the acidity of the stomach with HCL
– aid the lymphatic system with stretching, yawning and lots of full fats (butter, coconut fat, fatty animal tissue)
– keep the nervous system relaxed (Reverse Therapy, doing fun things, be cheerful, having cups of tea, dancing in the living room, cuddling the cats)

What else?
With the cortisol pills and the managing of my own stress levels I can tune the immune system a bit and have it be extra vigilant at times when I’m surrounded by lots of “germy people”.
I have gotten only one cold since I fell ill in 2008. And that cold was when I was severely stressed because I wanted to go on a cross-Europe train tour. Extra stress = extra cortisol = suppressing of the immune system = invitation to opportunistic viruses and bacteria.

And finally: I’m a firm believer of practising Mental Hygiene. You are not obliged to think what you think. If what I think makes me feel bad (worry, disaster scenario, reliving bad memories, focusing on bad aspects) I can and I should correct myself.
Think of something else. Anything else. Think of ants. Think of blue things. Think of the fun thing that happened the other day. Go watch David Armand mime the lyrics of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
There is no thought police in my head, I am free to think about something else.

 

PS I’m listening to a Norwegian podcast. For the first time since I fell ill. I can now listen to Norwegian again without feeling sad :)

As a result I’ve just started thinking about visiting that country again too. I can’t say this feeling will stay. I can’t yet claim I am in recovery. But I sure am happy and healthy, right this minute.