“Wellness for Makers: A Movement Guide for Artists” Book Review
I remember taking a break from my work at Orr Street Studios. I stopped in to watch one of my neighbors sculpting a grey block of stone. It was taking the shape of an elongated obelisk with various crevasses that seemed to be formed by flowing water. I was surprised at how she held the cone-shaped mallet, swinging it back and forth like an inverted metronome. At the time I didn’t realize the value of that technique. But on finishing Missy Graff Ballone’s book, Wellness for Makers: A Movement Guide for Artists, I now see that the sculpture was swinging her mallet through neutral, letting gravity do most of the work. Missy is suggesting that we consider how we use our bodies in our artistic endeavors with the same care and mastery that we bring to all our tools.
Her three areas of expertise, art, massage therapy, and yoga converge in this book to help artists refine their process to sustainably continue making the work their fans love for many years. In addition to being packed with loads of strategies that you can incorporate right away into your artistic process without compromising your given workflow, the brilliance of Missy’s book is how she makes the case for incorporating more movement and movement awareness into your studio work.
Missy gives us the permission we need to extend the dedication we express through our art so that it includes being dedicated to our best health. Missy is inviting us to dive deep into our movement process as passionately as we agonize over and protect our artistic process. In fact, they are inextricably intertwined. What can we create if we can no longer move without pain, or for only a portion of our day?
Rather than take aim at our bad habits as artists and makers, she artistically approaches the challenge of change obliquely. She begins with our values and good habits. Missy asks us to notice how we take good care of our equipment, the physical tools of our craft. We won’t hesitate to choose sharp scissors over dull or take the time to put a new edge on the graphite as soon as we’re not getting the line we’re after. How often do we treat the most important tool of all, our bodies, with the same reverence?
Missy isn’t advocating for one perfect posture that won’t accommodate the way you work. She presents a body’s neutral posture as a baseline to move through again and again. What she proposes is that we develop an active awareness of where neutral posture is. Then, use that as the center of a compass through which all our movements orient. In this way, we are more likely to have the body mechanics that can support a long and productive artistic career.
In the same vein, my Orr Street neighbor used good technique in order not to fight gravity with each blow or tap, but rather brought the cone-shaped mallet again and again through a position that was neutral to gravity. She used her energy to tilt her mallet past neutral just enough to allow gravity to provide the blow needed for anyone of the thousands of whacks she made on each piece. With Missy’s guidance, you can refine your process so your body can deliver the results you’ve trained so diligently for.
The book is written in reference form with loads of links and citations at the end (we’re thrilled to have our Soul Seat included as one of her recommended tools). You can read the book through, utilizing journaling pages and experimenting with her movement breaks, or dip in and out of various sections depending on whether you need tips on the best way to stretch your hands, your shoulders, or what sort of footwear will support you the best.
As a gift for your own artistic self or someone who may not think of themselves as an artist but also depends on a body that can mend itself in order to realize their goals, this book will be a welcome resource.
