How art can support mindfulness November 24 2025, 0 Comments
By Kimberly Nicoletti
As we enter the busy holiday season, art can remind us to slow down and live more intentionally, especially when we know the story behind some of the artists’ processes.
Both Kate McCavitt and Pamela Sukhum embrace the Zen concept of beginner’s mind, which essentially means dropping what we think we know about this or that, and approaching the world and our experiences with an open mind — as if we have never had this experience before. The practice encourages a sense of curiosity and fresh perspective.
It’s “somehow a pure form of who you really are because you haven’t learned to let a lot of other stuff influence you,” Kate says. “It’s a more intense focus — less on technique and more on exploration within the creative movement itself.”
She studied Sumie, which involves finding beauty in simplicity and in nature, through a Zen master for about a decade. Every brushstroke is very intentional, so it effectively becomes a meditation. The minimalistic technique focuses on simplicity and the creative use of white space.
It’s a nice metaphor of how allowing space within our own lives — and only filling it with what we truly intend and want — can guide us from one pleasant experience to another.
This Magic Light of Evening by Kate McCavitt
Kate also exemplifies the courage to leave constraints and follow your heart. About 20 years ago, she began incorporating golden fluid acrylics into her work, making it vibrantly colorful, with up to a dozen transparent washes over a metallic layer. Like nature, her creative expression has had “seasons,” more barren and monochromatic like winter and more bountifully colored like summer.
Autumn's Approach by Kate McCavitt
Both artists strive to expand their awareness beyond labels, such as “aspen” or “snow” by approaching, say, a mountain scene — in art or in person — as if it’s completely new.
Kate believes the best way to portray aspens is by spending time among them — not just looking at them, but also touching them and perhaps even pulling off a bit of bark. For her, it’s about communing with them through various times of the day and seasons so that she soaks in their essence and the many forms they take, from bare to full, green to golden, young to old, and wide to narrow.
Pamela also finds this approach essential to her art.
“A lot of times, we’ll see something, and we label it, and then it’s almost like we file it away as a known experience, whereas if we can retain that sense of wonder and discovery and curiosity … we have that capacity to see again with fresh eyes. It’s a process of being willing to let go, especially of preconceived notions,” she says.
She believes each person holds his or her own unique perception: One may think snow is laborious because it’s cold and needs to be shoveled, while another sees it as glorious, a fleeting opportunity to make fresh turns; it’s all relative.
She plays with the fluidity of perception by painting elements, such as flowers, in the natural world in a more surreal way, so that viewers see them anew, rather than immediately jumping to known perceptions. The gap between instantly labeling something as known and lingering to ponder its existence sparks the viewer’s imagination.
Her Natural Surrealism paintings begin by placing the canvas on the floor and following impulses, which include wide brushstrokes. Then she strips away specific layers of paint. As she moves her body around the canvas, she says there isn’t a moment for her to think. Once everything dries, she enters a more meditative, detailed state, in which she goes over every square inch using a 20-hair paintbrush.
In our everyday lives, and, particularly during the holidays, we can take a note from her playbook. For instance, we can approach this busy season with a less frantic (“have-to-buy-all-the-presents-and-pack-all-the-gatherings-in”) mindset and instead take time to ask ourselves: What if I slow down? What if I actually feel my body more, as opposed to getting stuck in endless thoughts and to-do lists? What if I don’t have to do it all perfectly? What if I take something known — the holiday season — and approach it with a more mindful and embodied sense of gratitude? How would that change my experience, just as Pamela makes her flowers more vivid by taking a more meditative approach?
Through her Mystical Realism series, she translates a mystical state into form. Her “Mystic Mountain” painting portrays the sky and mountains with luminous breakthroughs of light. Within the blue and white tones, peaks climax like waves, and birds soar through the scene. Going skiing with this image in mind can add a whole new energy to our mountain adventures.
Mystic Mountain by Pamela Sukhum
Similarly, her concept of “Waiting,” depicted through the painting of the same name, reframes an otherwise quiet and even boring experience into a bright and exciting framework, filled with colorful details creeping in.
While seeing anew, or living with beginners mind, can feel a little scary because it teeters on the edge of the unknown, the unfamiliar opens up a whole new world. Kate says that sometimes, to gain a broader view, you have to stray off the trail a bit, lose your way and then find it again.
It’s also a process of trusting, just as we trust that the shorter days we’re experiencing going into winter will ultimately usher us into springtime — a time of rebirth and growth.
Pamela says following the inspiration that comes from entering the unknown, and even being willing to fail — or be uncomfortable for a bit — sharpens our sense of freshness, wonder and curiosity.
And that ties into the holiday spirit perfectly. Afterall, children, who naturally embrace beginner’s mind, find the holidays most magical. So, this holiday season, may you see the world anew, with child-like eyes of wonder.