Hi there! I’m BrittMarie Eksell, and my home base is currently in the Highlands of Scotland. Since leaving Sweden in my late teens to study in the United States, my journey has taken me to many places, each with its own chapter. Through it all, creativity and a love of lifelong learning have been the constant threads—shaping and reshaping themselves throughout my evolving path of imagination and expression.
My first career in America, during the 1970s and 1980s, was as a textile designer. After graduating from Pratt Institute in New York, I began creating large-scale tapestries. I had the great fortune to work with renowned artist Helena Hernmarck—initially as an apprentice, and later as her main weaver. Here is an image of the very first tapestry I worked on with Helena, back in 1976.
More of Helena’s important work can be seen on her website www.hernmarck.com
After working with Helena for a decade, I felt the urge to return to university to pursue further studies in the field of decorative arts. Since my studies at Pratt had been primarily practical, choosing now to follow a more academic path meant starting from scratch. This process began with four years of undergraduate studies, leading to degrees in both art history and psychology.
The next step in my journey through creativity, psychology, and art was earning a master’s degree in art therapy from New York University. Another decade passed, during which I provided art therapy at two cancer hospitals in the Manhattan area, while also maintaining a private practice for individual clients.
By then, I had come to recognize the profound potential of creative expression to enrich everyday life—not only for those diagnosed with illness, but for anyone curious and willing to awaken their own inherent creativity. This realization led me to return to university once more, seeking support and deeper understanding for the questions that had emerged: What is the essence of creative energy within us? How does it work? When and how is it accessed? What impact does creativity have not only on our emotional life, but also on the neurophysiological functions of the brain and body when creative energy is awakened?
In my phenomenological study toward a PhD, my goal was to explore the relationship between engaging in creative art activities and the expression of emotions in older adults. A phenomenological approach focuses on the essence of lived experience. Therefore, my research explored the meaning participants in my art groups attributed to their experience—particularly in the process of engaging with and reflecting on their own artwork. A foundational belief in phenomenology is that it is the context of the lived experience—including individual feelings, rationales, events, relationships, and reflections—that gives the experience its meaning. The meanings people assign to their experiences, in turn, shape how they live those experiences.
Today, in my ongoing work as a lecturer, speaker, and facilitator of creative workshops on an international level, I am fortunate to collaborate with people at many stages of their creative journey. Likewise, I continue along my own path of creative insight, curiosity, and joy
Read my dissertation: Creativity as a Means to Expression of Emotions in Older Adults