Kaleidoscope – Winter/Spring 2005

Nik Hospodor’s “sophisticated flourenscentism” visual work, featured in “Landscape,” captures attention on Kaleidoscope’s front cover with a magical, surrealistic, fairytale world. Equally captivating is artist SylviAnn Murray’s “surreal -expressive” style. Nik Hospodor’s “sophisticated flourenscentism” visual work, featured in “Landscape,” captures attention on Kaleidoscope’s front cover with a magical, surrealistic, fairytale world. Equally captivating is artist SylviAnn Murray’s “surreal -expressive” style. Painting is one literary venue through which people with disabilities have found expression and healing. Both painters share the love of their works and explain the techniques that they use to create the desired effect. But what struck me most is the vision that comes through the eyes of the person without the disability. “Taking Hits,” a personal essay, shows the inevitable hurt from the counselor’s point of view. “Even though I had been in similar mind-states,” she says, “I got that flash of frustration that family members and friends feel for the mentally ill: Look! You’re not fucking bleeding from the head! I don’t see a wound. You’ll be fine, if you just snap out of it and put a smile on your face.” A number of insights about the healing process and the power of art, fiction, poetry, and personal essays to help with that process are shared. And Mind Riot, by Gail Waldstein, M.D. shares a gripping excerpt from a forthcoming novel. Fiction, essays, poetry—every contributing author has published elsewhere, teaches, or is highly involved in the literary and artistic community. [www.udsakron.org/kaleidoscope.htm]