As a young adult, Daise relocated from central New York to South Carolina. In addition to stage performances there, Daise’s creativity has also manifested itself in other ways, including portrait painting. “Most of my work tells the story of the divinity, strength, and vulnerability of black people,” she says. “It can be seen in our stance, our eyes and hands. I use a lot of religious iconography, as these are archetypal symbols that already carry a lot of conscious and unconscious meaning and amplify the story I want to tell.” (You may recognize Daise from her role on the children’s television show Gullah, Gullah Island.) Both as a storyteller and an artist, Daise understands well how a person’s resilience can shine through in her art. “Resilience is the ability to get back up again after falling or being knocked down; to inhale again once the breath has been knocked out of you,” she says. “Resilience is the ability to continue to believe in a future that is better and to also believe that what we do today — even if it is as simple as getting back up or taking a deep breath, even lying still for a while, or asking for help — will create that future. “My existence is evidence of my ancestors’ resilience. As our social and political climate becomes more polarized, I believe our survival as a compassionate, caring, and just society, as well as our survival as individuals, depends on our resilience.” Through her landscapes, Dattilio is able to capture the constant struggle we face in our own lives. “To me, resilience is about the quiet daily battles we overcome within ourselves,” she says. “The moments in the darkness when we are trying to catch our breath, or the blanket of fog and heaviness we have to fight through just to put one foot in front of the other and carry on with our day. These are silent struggles, not glamorous or particularly noteworthy, but momentous to the individual all the same.” Dattilio’s own struggle with anxiety inspired her to be part of the #MyEverydayResilience campaign. “Much of my struggles with anxiety and depression have stemmed from the loss of my brother at a young age,” Dattilio says. “He passed away in an accident when I was 9 and he was 6. Since that moment, I’ve lived in a heightened awareness of the fragility of life, with the dreaded anticipation that every joyful moment will inevitably end and be followed with pain. It is a constant challenge to break myself out of that thinking, to be able to fully enjoy life without the fear of the unknown or the what-ifs that haunt me daily. I’m typically not overtly vocal about my struggles with anxiety and depression — letting them live quietly in the background as my constant yet hidden companion through the narrative of my work and life. But I am so proud of the landscape around mental health shifting to openness and acceptance, and grateful to be able to contribute to this dialogue and continue to lift the stigmas surrounding it.” Artists often face negative emotions, self-doubt, and isolation. But Cure realized that a chronic illness brings those issues as well. “Losing my hearing overnight was shocking, and facing the unknown was scary,” she says. “Early on I recognized that I needed to keep my mind occupied to keep anxiety and depression at bay. My passion for creating ended up being my best therapy. I can define resilience as the power you give yourself to channel negative thoughts and feelings in a positive way, to overcome feeling hopeless.” Cure has approached her health battles as a blessing in disguise. “It allowed me to create a very personal art collection that has connected with many people with similar conditions,” she says. “Fortunately, the brain is resilient and it finds a way of pushing through difficulty. I’m a true believer that art helps us alleviate pain, reduce anxiety, and turn negative emotions into positive experiences.” Nieves says that she has drawn resilience through learning from her son who has autism. “Resilience is the ability to use whatever you have to navigate what life presents to you each day,” she says. “It is understanding that even the most difficult moments or experiences are not the end of us. It is understanding how to exercise self-compassion towards ourselves as we live and learn our way through life. It’s about showing up as your full self when life would rather you shrink.” By sharing her life and creative processes with others online, Nieves hopes she can help others to thrive through difficult times. She quotes the writer and poet Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” To which Nieves adds, “This is doable. I am proof.” As a second-generation American, Shulman believes that her personal history, of growing up with parents who immigrated from Cuba and Argentina, has instilled in her a work ethic to rise above obstacles and hardships. At one time, those hardships included starting a family. “While these professional changes were taking place, my husband and I decided to start a family,” Shulman says. “Unfortunately, we struggled with infertility for several years before we were able to have our daughter. At the time, I stopped working completely and I just became so fixated and overcome with grief over my inability to become pregnant. It took a lot to be able to trust myself, my doctors, and anyone who told me it would be okay. But my husband and I decided to have faith and keep going and not give up. After having two children I still carry with me the lessons I learned from that time.” Shulman’s creative career renewal has helped her to understand how making art fortifies her own resolve and spirit. “Resilience is about having strength, both physical and emotional, to overcome adversity, obstacles, and fear,” she says. “In order to have resilience within yourself, you need to be open to evolving and to change both in your thought process and in your body. It’s like a muscle that can be strengthened over time. Resilience is important in order to live a balanced, joyful, and productive life.” Winkler describes the design elements in her watercolor and ink abstracts as both “modern and whimsical.” Every time she sets her paintbrush down, Winkler feels energized and refreshed. Her art gives her a feeling of strength that isn’t always easy to maintain when you are a mother of three. “Resilience, to me, doesn’t look lofty,” she says. “It is small. It is day to day. It is a pushing back of the darkness in the smallest ways.” Winkler hopes her career as an artist can help others who are struggling in their daily lives to find their own voice. “I want to be a voice for the mothers; the ones who quietly rock their babies with no accolades. The ones who don’t feel they’ve put any ‘stamp’ on the world, but who are raising a generation. They, to me, are the definition of resilience, because they strain their bodies to bring forth babies, they bear the weight of toddlers on their tired hips, and they live under the emotion of loving another soul beyond understanding.” David’s road to becoming an artist may have been unconventional, but she believes there is a common thread in all of us. “Resilience, simply put, means to live and to thrive when hurt and hardship comes, for both will surely come,” she says. “The best you can do in the meantime is fortify yourself through knowing yourself deeply and knowing what you believe.” For David, no matter what the struggle, art has been there for her as a vehicle through the toughest of times. “Hurt and hardship comes for us all at one point in time,” she says. “This certainty binds us as humans. The details and the impact of our hurt and hardship may vary, and so will the ways we reckon with the outcome. Art helps me reckon with my hurt and hardship, soothes it, and helps me withstand challenges. Through the #MyEverydayResilience campaign I get to offer my fellow humans the one thing that has helped me to transcend hurt and hardship. Art is critical to my resilience strategy because it offers me new possibilities for living and thriving.” Lee has drawn inspiration from the natural flora and fauna of her region. “I like to paint flowers because I see resilience demonstrated in plant life every day,” she says. “Every time we see a flower or fruit it is because a plant made it through many obstacles in order to survive. I look at my life in the same way. Adjusting to the ups and downs of bipolar disorder (among other things) has been essential to my survival. Owning and accepting that part of myself was the key to unlocking my ability to thrive.” As an artist, Lee uses her platform to be a mental health advocate to connect with others who may be struggling in their own lives. “I hope to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding neurodiversity by being candid about my own journey with bipolar disorder and its role in my work,” she says. “I’ve had times in my life when I didn’t feel resilient, but powerful examples helped me, so I want to be that example for others.” In a fast-paced world, Van Deusen feels that resilience is what has allowed her to remain an artist. “Every emotional, professional, personal, and physical blow that I have sustained throughout my artistic career could have derailed me,” she says. “I am an artist today only because I developed resilience. Resilience doesn’t come naturally. You have to work towards it. When I get a rejection letter from a fellowship, I put it up on my bulletin board and force myself to see the positive aspects of that rejection. I don’t deny the pain in a situation but look to figure out how to work through that pain and become stronger and more focused on the other side of the healing.” While resilience is important to Van Deusen as an artist, it is even more important to her as the mother of two young daughters. “My youngest daughter witnessed me suffer a traumatic injury on a ski slope in 2018, and both of my daughters have seen me battle back from that injury to return to my normal physical activities as well as my work in my studio. Through my actions, positive attitude, and dedication, they bear witness to my resilience and learn how to apply that same approach to their own lives.” Bruce feels her experience not just as an artist but as an African-American female has fueled her personal resilience. “Resilience means thriving in the face of adversity,” she says. “I’m always amazed and inspired by black women’s resilience. Even in the face of systemic oppression, we continue to emerge as innovators in all fields from academia to government. Because of our creativity, resourcefulness, and determination we are the solid foundation upon which powerful movements are built. Black women are the definition of resilience.” Bruce believes everyone can benefit through experiencing art themselves. “Art offers us a chance to form a deeper and more meaningful connection to spirit and beauty,” she says. “Resilience cannot occur without healing. Art offers us a way to understand and heal ourselves.” After receiving a BFA from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, Popova pursued a career in art, but it was not an easy path. “There were many moments in my life during which I faced intense fear and disappointment,” she says. “Moving to a new country had its challenges, and pursuing a career in the arts has had a toll. There were moments of despair, and even a temptation to give everything up completely, including my will to stay alive. Art has contributed to giving me hope and purpose.” Popova feels that the key to unlocking her potential as an artist was to prioritize her own well-being. “After experiencing a challenging emotional period, I took charge of my mental and physical health,” she says. “Exercise, nutrition, prayer, and meditation were vital in helping me climb out of a deep depression. After a year of a consistent commitment to my well-being, I saw a significant difference. My art career blossomed, I was full of creative ideas. My business prospered. It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but taking steps to get my health together changed my life within a year in ways I could never imagine.” Tinsley feels her privilege of listening deeply to the experience of others has helped form her definition of what it means to be resilient. “My experience has taught me that resilience is the emotional, psychological, and physical ability to overcome painful, traumatic, and adverse circumstances that have the potential to break you. Resilience is a term often used to describe my community, often in more problematic ways. I try to be mindful of how I use the word and seek to find ways within my sphere of influence to support and participate in work that seeks to create a more just, equitable, kind, and community-based environment to eradicate the circumstances within our control that can do emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual harm.” For me, resiliency is about being vulnerable enough to connect to others. I hope these stories of overcoming adversity with the help of art will inspire others to join the #MyEverydayResilience campaign.
