“ I first came to take notice of Tricia's art during a time when she moved away from the city and back to her hometown of Quincy, IL.
She had become unexpectedly disabled, at odds with the healthy lifestyle she lived, so it was a difficult time. I worried she wouldn't recover. In Quincy, Tricia picked back up an old artistic habit she had, of plaster-casting people's body parts.
It made me smile to see through Facebook how this art form returned, and as more and more plaster casts emerged, I laughed to think of her plastering all those bodies. As the work started to emerge though, I had a different feeling about it. People were plater casting the parts of their bodies that hurt them, and turning them into art. It culminated in a multi-artist show, called "Out of Body Experience."
Everyone's cast was displayed with a story of their hurt or their healing, each artist employing different mediums and techniques to show a vulnerable part of self.
I was deeply affected by the photos of the show, and remain so any time I remember it.
Tricia's ability to turn a devastating physical illness into a force for positive change inspired me enormously.
She actually did recover and moved back to Columbia, where we reconnected.
Since that show in Quincy, she has begun teaching a course to help manifest artistically the things you want in your physical life.
I'm not into self-help of any type, but again, Tricia's work speaks to me and moves me deeply. I agreed to begin her program to help me unblock a creative obstacle I've had for many years, and just a few weeks into the counseling, I'm having huge results.
For seven years I've been working on paintings of a man and a woman, a series of six actually, and although the man has been near completion, the woman was not even dreamed.
I am using Tricia's process of creating a journal and going through her recommended motions, and already after 7 years of blockage, the creativity is unbound and flowing.
There is power not only in the process, but in the emotional way that Tricia came to teach it; her insights, encouragement, and loving words leave me feeling assisted and nurtured and cared for.
Her difficult journey to this path gives her a perspective beyond her years and enhances a sensitivity she had already.
Her students are called her beloveds, for obvious reasons.
I'm ecstatic with my progress so far and have recommended Tricia to many of my friends, many of whom are making plans and arrangements to take up this wonderful art process, manifest their desires artfully, and heal something hurt in the process.
Please feel free to call or contact me any time if you have questions about my confidence in the process or in Tricia as a teacher for such. ""