Day 67/100: Linda Marcille
Encouraging an Artist whose Personal Journey with Chronic Pain and Trauma Has Empowered Her to Support Others
As part of my 100 Days of Encouragement Project, this week I am celebrating artists who create amidst the reality of living with chronic pain, illness, grief, and/or trauma symptoms. For each of these artists, art has been part of coping and finding their way. And their stories are powerful.
Today, I am celebrating Linda Marcille, a creative who works in multiple mediums and advocates for chronic illness, trauma, and pain sufferers to make art part of their self-care disciplines.
Like so many other people that struggle with chronic physical and mental illness, Linda grew up in a home steeped in multi-generational trauma that was never talked about it.
Her father’s death by suicide when she was 9 years old, combined with traumatizing abuse, bullying & lack of emotional security, made Linda’s school years a source of terror. Without a clear sense of what a safe and loving environment felt like, she developed a social phobia with agoraphobia, as well as a mysterious autoimmune illness.
In her late 20’s, she and her husband moved to the remote Northeast Kingdom in Vermont, where they started a small homestead/farm. It was in that isolated place that she rediscovered her creativity and art.
Once she started painting, something magical began to happen. She started to see beauty in herself through her artistic creations. She discovered that she could work through complex and difficult emotions using intuitive art. She experienced less Fibromyalgia pain when she was painting, and found that it would come crashing back into her body when she stopped.
She taught herself to paint with French dyes on silk, creating beautiful rural homestead scenes that instilled a sense of “home” – in herself and others. Her paintings were accepted into galleries, and they began to sell very well. She was finding her way and healing through her art.
Then in 2000, she became ill with multiple tick-borne infections that would not be diagnosed or treated for another 6 years. She also fractured her back that year. That was the year she learned about rage, and it was frightening.
Over the next decade the neurological effects of the undiagnosed bacterial infection caused her identity as a professional artist to slip away. She was forced to stop painting with dyes, drop out of galleries, sell her house, and move. She was wading through the thick, black, sucking mud of illness, loss and grief. That was when she turned to intuitive mixed-media art journaling. She readily admits that it saved her life (no exaggeration)!
She still struggles with chronic Post Lyme Illness, Fibromyalgia and social phobia. But the beautiful thing is that she can spend days alone in her studio, immersed in the healing properties of the creative process, and not feel lonely. Her art practice sustains and continues to heal her.
She’s also discovered ways to create social connection. Last year, she started a YouTube Channel called Beginners Mind – Art Mind, where she offers:
Her desire is to encourage others to create their way through challenging times.
She recently showed her viewers how she created an “Art Nest” (a portable supply kit) that lets her continue her creative practice when she’s too sick to get out of her recliner. This concept has generated a lot of discussion and questions from viewers who are longing to make that kind of accessible creative tool kit for themselves. Check it out!
Linda believes that art truly does heal, and she wants to impart three important messages to people who are struggling:
Intuitive art journaling and expressive arts are important parts of a creative healing practice;
Art doesn’t have to be pretty to be powerful! She cheekily adds: “Ugly is still healing”; and
TALK ABOUT IT! Linda is on a mission to get people who are struggling with physical or mental illness, grief, isolation or anything else, to break through the stigma of silence. Secrecy and silence can exacerbate shame and keep you from giving and receiving the empathy you need.
She turns 60 in 2022, and she’s started exploring more with her art. Her goal is to loosen her grip on her expectations of what her art, life and health should look like. What a brilliant way to begin a new decade of life!
I met Linda through an online class where she was a source of relentless encouragement to the other students. I am so thrilled that she is willing to share her healing art journey with us!
She is real.
And she is honest.
And she lets us see her struggles and her triumphs and the places in between.
In other words, she’s a genuine inspiration in her persistence and generosity!
How You Can Be an Encouragement
Please check out Linda’s offerings on Instagram and You Tube, follow her, and send her some encouragement today by commenting on one of her posts, or sending her a direct message. See her linktr.ee list for other more practical ways you can support Linda as well.
Instagram: @linda.marcille.art
You Tube Art Videos: www.youtube.com/user/silkartisan
Website (silk painting): www.crowhousestudio.com
Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LindaMarcilleArt