About the Book
In that pristine moment of being with the art in front of me, an expansive swell fills my chest. Tears spring to my eyes. The art transfixes me, and I cannot look away. Sometimes my legs feel weak, wobbly. My heart and breathing speed up to keep up with my emotion. It’s not an out-of-body experience but a full-body one.
Looking at art is my sacred journey. It is my spiritual practice. It is my meditation cushion, and my temple, and my altar, and my pew. It is my challenger. It is my refuge. Art is one of my tools for self-development, just as much as all of the books I’ve read. I don’t look at art to learn about the art. I look at art to learn about myself. I look at art to learn about the world and my place in it. I look at art in order to fully understand and embody who I am, who I want to be, and how I want to be. My body slows, my mind slows, and I can just be with—with art and with myself. The art has changed me.
A Memoir Built with Art
Art Is About Being Whole: A Memoir explores Cindy Ingram’s journey of finding who she is underneath all the layers of protection. Each essay incorporates a work of art that encapsulates growth experienced at pivotal moments in the author’s life. Each piece of art is a touch point to come back to again and again as she acknowledges where she has been and where she is headed. From a Great White Shark swimming stealthily beneath burnout to a futuristic painting of a mask connecting the author with the humanity of her long-lost biological father to a succession of painted eyes clarifying her spirituality, each artwork helps Ingram put words and images to thoughts, feelings, and transformations that often feel too hard to explain.
How do you explain a feeling? That’s what artists do.
Art, like love, just is.
Giving, Receiving, Asking
for nothing. Just whole.
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Art Is About Being Whole chronicles my journey from a place of trauma, shame, and anxiety to a place of wholeness using my connection to works of art as metaphors to tell the story. Download a free chapter of my book featuring The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo by entering your email below.
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About the Author
Cindy Ingram is a writer, artist, poet, podcaster, educator, and entrepreneur. Connecting with works of art and crafting innovative learning activities are her superpowers, and she has dedicated her life to bringing the magic of art connection to others. A former art museum educator and art teacher with a B.A. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Art Education from the University of North Texas, Cindy has supported teachers and their students through her work as founder and CEO of Art Class Curator (https://artclasscurator.com) since 2014. Cindy is passionate about taking art out of dark, stuffy lecture halls and out of the pretentious gatekeeping of “fine art” and into the hearts, minds, and lives of everyone. She measures her success with the volume of tears shed.
Cindy lives in Wylie, Texas with her fully-neurodiverse family, which includes her husband, two daughters, and two dogs (the dogs are self-diagnosed). She delights in all things science, philosophy, art, and psychology and unironically marveling about thoughts, ideas, and feelings. When she is not on the couch playing video games with a dog on her lap, you’ll find her reading, traveling, playing board games with friends, watching musical theater, creating mixed media collages in her art journal, and, of course, visiting art museums.
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Don’t stop connecting with art with the book; download your free art connection guide for tips on how to find your own personal connections with art.