“Things You Will Never Know” acrylic on board, 100x80cm by Susan Simonini
I first learned about glimmers through a newsletter from Susan Simonini. She is a Tasmanian painter I follow on Instagram and is having a solo exhibition with Handmark Gallery. The show is titled GLIMMER and soon opens on April 12th, 2024. Susan wrote this about how glimmers inspired her work:
“In psychology, a ‘glimmer’ appears as the opposite of a ‘trigger’; a moment that inspires feelings of joy, peace, and safety, and in turn has a positive impact on mental health. Working in series, I begin each painting with gestural mark-making, from which I visualize shapes materializing. Often these shapes are informed by my environment in rural Tasmania; the angular design of a farm gate, a patchwork of fields, or the curving tractor lines etched into crops. Embracing these initial glimmers, and following the pathways they present, loose geometric patterns begin to emerge. Each painting informs the next, creating a fluid connection or conversation between them all.”
Glimmers were first acknowleged by Deb Dana. a clinical social worker who studies trauma. Glimmers are those tiny, fleeting moments when you feel a sense of expanded awareness, peace, joy, presence and/or gratitude. In her 2018 book, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Dana writes that glimmers aren’t dramatic, life-changing experiences. She states, “Glimmers are micro-moments of regulation that foster feelings of well-being.”
I love this glimmer thing. I totally see it in Susan Simonini’s paintings and now I am noticing these glimmers more in my own daily life. Thank you Susan.
Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork.
510-601-9632 jerilawson@mac.com