We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colleen Herriges. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colleen below.

Colleen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I feel like it is pretty safe to say that all of my art comes form a meaningful place.

I didn’t start REALLY exploring art until about 3 years ago after leaving a horrifically absuive marriage and landing in a new city. About 3 months after arriving and starting over my physical health took a VERY rapid turn for the worse after only a few months at a dream job. Combined with a Menty B (as a treat) I had to finally accept that I could no longer work and call it. I had to walk away from a lifetime of being a high achieving and very driven (and BUSY!) individual to sitting at home most of the time.

After almost 3 years of being misdiagnosed and learning just how horrible some doctors and the healthcare system in America as a whole absolutely fails people, I was able to FINALLY assemble a good team of physicians and have been recently diagnosed with Sjogren’s disease. Sjogrens is an autoimmune disease which primarily attacks the exocrine glands and mucous membranes, but can also attack various other systems. In my case, it seems focused on my nervous system (autonomic especially) and my joints/muscles.

I also have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and other things going on. My body is absolutely NOT a Wonderland. At this point it has chosen to identify as a problem.

I also have Complex PTSD and AuDHD so that also keeps things….uh….. amusing at best and definitely contributes to a lot of concepts in my work.

A majority of my art comes from a place of meaning. Most of my art reflects struggles with chronic illness. Quite a bit of it also comes from a place of feminine rage at a justice system that allows and currently seems to support the continued abuse and exploitation of women. Most of my art is made while in pain or unable to function in any other way. I sit, a LOT. Art is where I find meaning in my sitting – in this time that my body has forced me to slow down and rest. I may be rotting, but at least I am creating something. Creating art is what is tethering me to continued existence – and is personally the best form of dissociation from the horrors outside of my enclosure.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

If it isn’t weird, I’m not really interested. I definitely don’t do beige. I live in a world of color and oddity, which is where I feel safest. I like to perch on the edge of reality and find I’m often bored by it. My imagination has played in the realm of whimsically odd as long as I can remember.

I hated art class in school. Hated it. As an adult I now understand that I hated it for two reasons. The way it was being taught was not playing well with my AuDHD which was not caught until my mid-40’s. I hated being forced to work with whatever medium I was told to make art with. Needless to say my art grades were mediocre yet I was fortunate enough to land myself into college level English courses by my junior year. The art stopped in high school. I even avoided taking art as an elective.

After the tragic loss of my mother in August of 2010, I picked up a paintbrush again in the spring of 2012. I started with some goopy acrylic from a cheap art kit and copier paper. I then made my way into an actual easel, canvas and nicer paints and then I stopped painting in 2014 because life does as it does and I allowed bad choices to get in the way.

Fast forward to 2023 – my partner -who is an artist as well- purchased a drawing/mixed media art book for me and reignited my passion for creating. Only this time my love for art and creativity was nurtured, encouraged and enabled instead of being tamped down as a distraction from more “important” things (money, career, acquisitions, etc.). This led to me trying my hand at literally every medium I could.

I currently am most drawn to watercolor and am starting to really enjoy oil pastels after a failed attempt a few years ago and after learning how much a difference QUALITY art supplies can make. I feel like my best work is graphite but it is soooo boring to me because there is no color. I would almost prefer to make bad art with color than “good” art with shades of black and grey. I also crochet, sew and make dioramas. I am self taught and as much as I would LOVE formal instruction I do not have the money or physical/mental capacity to participate in any kind of formal training currently. So, I have a lot of happy accidents and make a lot of straight to the trash can art.

I feel like the chaotic nature of my work is what sets me apart. The ADHD “bees” run the show here so everyone is unsuspecting of what the next finished project will be, including me. I thrive in creative chaos. Some of the art I make is also fairly relevant to anyone dealing with chronic pain, mental health issues and/or being a woman in this current timeline and I definitely feel like most of the appreciation of my work comes from those communities.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I do not have a particular goal or mission.

Art is how I cope.

How I cope with pain, injustice and the frustration that comes with it. Creating adds to my frustration – as my motor skills are akin to a toddler who is NOT listening – but it is all I have now. Time and art supplies. I know you are probably thinking it must be dreamy. It isn’t. This is my escape from reality. This is me on that ledge peering over into the whimsy and repetition and choosing to be there instead. I’m turning my pain (mental and physical) into something tangible. In whatever format it comes to me.

I’m not out to be famous or have fortunes. Art is serving a purpose for me, it is helping me to expel toxins. The ones in my soul, mind and body. The ones outside of me that I can’t control all drifting away into and out of my hands. Art is my sanity.

I create to survive.

I make the things.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I feel like the most rewarding aspect of my journey so far has been f**king up. I’m serious.

That is the space where I learn the most and where my skills level up. I rarely land on what works immediately. Some of my best art has been either a happy accident or has happened when I am really not invested in a piece and am just “playing”. Some of my worst art has been when I am trying too hard.

Failure is the best teacher.

Failure is inevitable when making art. This isn’t to say I am happy when I have trashed a good piece by trying something new, or an idea doesn’t go as planned. It can be frustrating, but the lesson is always there and growth always comes with it.

That flow tho…

Getting into that flow state where everything else falls away and the only thing on my mind is what I am doing. The way the oil pastel feels under my fingers when I’m blending it – watching the watercolors move how they are going to and relinquishing that control to that particular medium is delicious. The hum of the sewing machine, or the soft caress of the yarn against my fingers as I watch each stitch form, turning a piece of yarn or fabric into something I can wear or use…

The reward when a piece is finished is nice, but it will never compare to the reward of creating and surrendering to the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://enchanted-gallows-tree-art.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enchanted_gallows_tree_art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555327116915