Blueberry Magic
Some paintings are created with a plan. Others become part of the healing process.
15 July 2026
Sometimes the purpose of art is simply to create a moment of relief. That is exactly what this piece did for me.
When we’re trying to create new habits or let go of old ones, we have to retrain our brains. The process isn’t always easy. We can understand something logically, yet still find ourselves pulled back toward familiar patterns of thinking.
Art, for me, has become a form of therapy. A safe space to explore, create, feel, and learn. I paint until I feel better.
As I stood in front of this canvas, I kept imagining waves inside my brain. Not ocean waves, but sine waves. Like old pathways slowly giving way to new ones. Like new synapses being formed or rewired. So that is what I painted.
The first layers became flowing ribbons stretching across the canvas. Then I painted over them. Then came warm vertical strokes. I painted over those too. Later I became fascinated with soap bubbles and experimented with bubble prints, only to paint over most of those as well.
By the end, very little of the original painting remained.
At first I thought I was searching for the “right” painting. Eventually I realized the painting wasn’t asking me to create something specific at all.
It seemed to whisper,
“Who cares what I am or what I become? Right now I am simply a vessel to capture whatever you need and want until the discomfort and pain inside you eases.”
That changed everything.
Instead of worrying about what the finished painting should look like, I simply kept painting. Every layer became part of the process. Some survived. Others disappeared beneath the next. Yet even the layers I painted over left behind subtle textures, unexpected colors, and hints of their history.
The same is true for us.
Growing doesn’t require us to erase our past. We build on top of it. We learn from it. We allow new ways of thinking to slowly become stronger than the old ones.
By the time I finished, I realized this painting had already fulfilled its purpose.
It wasn’t about creating a masterpiece. It was about creating enough space for my mind to quiet down.
Benjamin named this piece Blueberry. I decided to add Magic to the end.
Because, in many ways, this painting felt magical. Not because of the colors or the techniques, but because somewhere beneath all of those layers, something inside me had changed. I hadn’t painted away my past. I had painted through it, making room for new ways of thinking and learning to trust my own creative voice a little more.
Sometimes a painting isn’t trying to become something beautiful. Sometimes it’s simply there to remind the artist that transformation can happen one layer at a time.
Blueberry Magic 50 × 50 cm