“Into the Light” Art Exhibition Opens May 16 at Mercy by the Sea in Madison

Into the Light,” an exhibit that combines the arts of painting and poetry, opens in Mercy by the Sea’s Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery on Friday, May 16, and runs through Saturday, June 28. Paulson says “Into the Light” emerged from conversations with Golicz about how differently people experience winter. “A lot of people fear it because of the darkness,” she says. The two friends realized that, especially as creatives, they love winter. “It’s a time to go inward; all activity stops, and it’s your time to create.” Mindful of this, they approached “Into the Light” as a way of “reframing darkness as the matrix of creativity.” As they undertook the project, Golicz wrote a collection of poetry inspired by the book of Genesis in the Bible and written through an eco-spiritual lens. Upon receiving Golicz’s poems, Paulson would read and meditate on them before starting a painting. Through the process, she realized she was painting waves, and in so doing, dealing with a traumatic sailing voyage she experienced in her 20s. As creating “Into the Light” was transformative for Paulson, she hopes others will discover “...what resonates with their personal experience” and bond with the exhibit accordingly. “Into the Light” is an interdisciplinary exhibit combining the three spiritual practices of Lectio (the poetry) and Visio (the paintings). The third spiritual practice, Terra Divina, comes when guests are encouraged to spend time walking the grounds, beach or seven-circuit labyrinth at Mercy by the Sea after viewing the exhibit. “Getting outside and into nature is our salvation,” Paulson says. From a sailor’s viewpoint, Paulson says time at sea gives an even deeper perception. “When you're outside of land, it's a perfect circle--there's the horizon, the sea and the sky. It opens you up.”

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