Identity Three- Spritual growth and freedom

Gallery layout "An introspective journey"

Toowoomba Regional Gallery

"Dirty washing"

"Contemplation"

Contemplation

August 2008, Issue 73

It's all about the journey

Mixed media work 'Conversation with the gods' (left) and Joy Heylen (right).

By Susan Knaap
Extramural student Joy Heylen knows all about journeys. Born in South Africa, she and her husband Patrick and two sons Luc and Jarod decided it was time for a sea-change and moved lock, stock and barrel to Auckland, New Zealand. Nine months later, tired of the incessant commuting they moved to Christchurch and it was there that Joy enrolled, extramurally, with The Learning Connexion. A journey of a different kind occurred at this time, both in the new found passion she discovered for painting and in the direction her personal life would take.

"I was raised in a fairly dysfunctional family," Joy says "and learned the mechanism of making life about me, thinking that was how I would get through my days - choosing to be a victim of my circumstance. My siblings and I detached from each other, judging each other for our own part in the destruction of the family unit." All that changed though while Joy was in Christchurch, thanks to a radical intervention from her brother. "Alan experienced an epiphany while doing a simple daily task," Joy explained. "He recognised a few universal secrets, of which family is the very foundation." In response, he promptly rallied his siblings around him and united them - "an awesome whirlwind experience," according to Joy.

With renewed enthusiasm for life and for family, Joy attended an intuitive art workshop run by TLC tutor JoElle Gragilla and it was after that that Joy recognised the direction she wanted to take in life. "I realised I wanted to help people achieve spiritual growth through art," she said. It was an amazing and serendipitous few weeks - she felt deeply inspired and wanted to change the world but then, not long afterwards, life dealt a cruel blow. Her brother, Alan, died. And so began the long healing process. "I tried really hard to find peace, but started feeling very disgruntled with life."

Then, while reading the newspaper one day, Joy found a job advertisement perfectly suited for her husband - he applied and got it. The job was in Toowoomba, Australia. It turned out that the prospect of a fresh move to a new country was just the stimulus Joy needed to reframe her life and her desires. "I sat down and listed all the areas in life that I love and what it was I wanted from the future," she said. And not long after they settled she began seeing to it that her desired future came about.

After contacting a number of voluntary agencies, Joy joined the committee of NAPCAN, a child abuse prevention society. The committee needed help with ideas as to how to recognise National Child Protection Week and Joy came up with the concept of offering art workshops to children. Realising she would need assistance to make her idea a reality, Joy brought in 'Play on Play', a community based arts programme for children run by artist Damien Kamholtz. They, in turn, asked Joy to coordinate their involvement during Child Protection Week.

Joy is fast accumulating a wealth of expertise. "I have made some incredible contacts within the Government Education Departments to utilise for future projects," she says. "And so far I've raised money for Child Protection Week festivities and organized radio and newspaper coverage. I'm helping oversee a pantomime for the Child Protection Unit in September and have been asked to work on a project for abused kids in October. Also, the Manager of Carbal Medical Centre (an Aboriginal/Torres Strait community based centre) has asked me if I'd like to do art workshops with Aboriginal school kids."

Joy's dream career is very clearly in progress, thanks no doubt to a large dose of self-directed action along with a good measure of surrender. "With each project that I work on, I gain more and more confidence to create bigger impact," she says. "I believe that my future lies here; I am yet to work out exactly how. For the first time though, I am finally grasping the old adage: 'It's not about the destination, but the journey.'"

TLC article August 2008

I feel there is a lack of art stimuli in primary schools. I would like to create a focus group and create an artist in residence in high need primary schools here in Toowoomba. The art classes will cover life learning/curriculum based activities.

So if anyone would like to add to this or know of anyone that would be interested in joining this artist's group, let me know..