Join artist and creative professional Noemi Beres as she stitches together the therapeutic power of mixed media collages, revealing how the journey of creating art can lead to inner peace and stress relief in the face of emotional trauma.
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Show Notes | TranscriptArt is safe and cannot hurt you… It’s much healthier for you to put it out there than keep it bottled inside you. – Noemi Beres
For Noemi Beres, art was a powerful force that guided her through some of the darkest moments of her life. Faced with the heartbreak of losing her father and grandmother, along with the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, Noemi’s love for collage-making became a therapeutic outlet for her grief and anxiety. As she upcycled her old canvases and created stunning hand-sewn collages, Noemi experienced a sense of serenity and hope that transcended her pain. Her remarkable journey is a touching example of how engaging with art can foster resilience and emotional well-being, even in the most trying of times.
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Uncover the power of art in aiding mental health recovery and fostering inner tranquility.
- Delve into Naemi Beres’ artistic journey with collages and her affinity for mixed media and repurposing materials.
- Understand the connection between creative outlets and stress reduction for improved mental health.
- Realize the value of savoring each step of the creative journey, rather than solely the destination.
- Learn about other calming pursuits that complement and enhance your artistic experiences.
Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:
The Art of Living with Martin Arkenstone
Healing Power of Fairy Tales with Laura Lewis-Barr
Music and Mental Health with Kareem Daniel Ryce
Resources:
Connect with Noemi here
Follow Noemi on Instagram here
Follow Noemi on Facebook here
Join the Soulful Women’s Network here
Send me a message here
☕ Support the podcast here
❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here
Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter
TRANSCRIPT
Gloria Grace Rand
Namaste. I am so excited to be with you today. We have got a great guest with us who I’ve been, I’ve known for a while through email and it’s so lovely to be able to actually meet her in person now. And her name is Noemi Beres and she is best known for her unique and witty mixed media hand sewn collages on canvas made from old photos, postcards, colorful yarn, textiles and old buttons. And she really loves collecting small bits and pieces that she finds fascinating and then incorporates them into this mixed media collage that usually has a vintage vibe. And for those of you watching this today on YouTube, there’s a couple of pieces which I’ll let her point out in a little bit. But I want to just really welcome you and I’m looking forward to talking about your fascination with art and how you use it in a way that I think will be really interesting for our audience. So welcome to live love engage.
Noemi Beres
Thank you so much for having me on your show, Gloria. And finally we met virtually in person.
Gloria Grace Rand
I know, exactly. Yeah. So, hey, let’s just put in a plug for your other business before we dive into the art. So how is it that we actually connected? Tell our audience that.
Noemi Beres
I’m actually the co-owner of the Podcast Connections podcast booking agency and I’ve been working with Gloria for some time now. I can’t even remember when we started working together some like two years ago. And we help entrepreneurs to connect to quality podcast shows. And that’s my day job, that’s what I do for a living. And I really enjoy connecting these awesome female and male entrepreneurs across the world. I’m based in Cyprus, but I’m originally from Hungary, from Central Europe, and I’m connecting people in the US, Canada, UK. So we are all over the place.
Gloria Grace Rand
When you told me about, you actually reached out to pitch yourself for a change and I thought that was so cool, and especially when you told me what you did. So I would love for you to start off and tell our audience a little bit about what got you interested in art and especially doing like, collages and things like that.
Noemi Beres
I was always fascinated by art, Gloria, since I was a kid. And I always did some drawing, painting, jewelry making. I was growing up with art around me, and when my parents took me to other parts of Europe and we went on holidays, we always went to galleries and museums and I was always fascinated by it. So I loved all part of it. But collage making came later on in my life when I was expecting with my son ten years ago, almost eleven, I actually discovered collages. I don’t know how it came into my life, but I just used like these old buttons and old pictures and old bits and pieces, as you mentioned at the beginning of the show and I was just so fascinated by it that these small bits and pieces can create a complete piece of work and art. And it was just pretty awesome. So that’s when I discovered it. And the hands on collages that I’m making right now, actually, that started in 2020 when COVID hit, life became pretty stressed and I was short of art supplies in Cyprus because we were very strict regulations. We couldn’t go to the shops we ordering online. It’s not what it’s natural thing in Cyprus. And I had started to repurpose my old canvases and I upcycled some of them because I love upcycling. That’s when I started to basically hand sew collages and not using glue or anything and not using paper, but using these buttons, these postcards, these photos. And that’s how I started to create my handsome collages. But I also make digital collages and I had a couple of group exhibitions in Cyprus, in Italy and I love doing that. And my dream is to have a solo show one day. Yeah, hopefully that’s going to happen sooner than later.
Gloria Grace Rand
Absolutely. Well, I’m sure it’ll be wonderful because I too, I think collages are really interesting. I’ve seen… one of my past clients was an artist, she was a digital artist, but I think some of the things she made sort of incorporated a lot of different symbols and different pictures and things and then would all make this something new. Part of I understand, I think that how you got into art is also helping and I guess especially with COVID, but do you find that it has helped you? Actually, just how has it helped you? Let’s say personally, how has that helped you?
Noemi Beres
Yeah, unfortunately, I lost my dad to cancer in 2019 and right after that it was a long battle with cancer. And after that my grandma passed away because of an accident in the same year after a couple of months. And it was a lot. And then COVID hit and so it was just like, oh, my God is collapsing around me and us and my family. I don’t have brothers, I don’t have sisters. I only have my mom and my only son. So it was a pretty stressful time of my life and I didn’t know how to cope with it. But then I thought, it’s like I always turn to art when I had any kind of problem in life. So let’s do that now and let’s just upcycle these canvases and just start doing something because I need that energy. And that’s how I started and that’s how it helped me to cope with grief and to cope with loss. I think it’s the best way to turn to art because art is such a safe, art is safe and cannot hurt you. And no matter how disturbing you may think your project appears, it’s much healthier you to put it out there than keep it bottled inside you because that would just cause stress and trauma and you become ill or anything can happen. And that’s how it helped me to cope with grief.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, I think that’s really great that you were able to do that. And it makes so much sense, too, because when you can focus your attention on something else instead of your problems, and especially when you’re doing something creative like that, I think it really takes your mind out of the mundane, day to day things, and you just really get to really connect, I like to say even spiritually connect with your higher self and just be able to bring in something new and beautiful into the world. So it’s wonderful that you were able to do that. Have you ever thought about maybe because doing this maybe to help other people as well? Because I know there are some people who do like, they do art therapy or just there’s things called like intuitive art and things like that. Have you ever thought about maybe not necessarily right now but maybe down the road doing something in addition to having your show one day?
Noemi Beres
Yes, actually I did. I’m member of a women network group and I had a chat with a lovely lady from that group and when I told my story to her, she told me, she said exactly the same thing that you told me before. It’s like, have you thought about this? I haven’t, but now you’re telling me it’s probably it’s a good idea. So that’s actually my agenda and one of my goals as well, to help other people because I’m a self taught artist. I never went to school. This is everything just intentional for me and it’s coming from my soul, from deep down there. But I suppose if it helped me, it can help other people too. And I can help them as well.
Gloria Grace Rand
Let me ask you this. The pieces that you create, do you see them as something like there’s a certain theme or maybe this one really expresses a certain feeling or is it just in the moment and it’s just I just want to just see what I can pull together. What have you found about that?
Noemi Beres
The funny thing is that, for example, I made some dark collages. I called my dark digital collages. Those were digital collages, especially after my dad passed away. So everything was pretty dark and I couldn’t get away from it. I couldn’t use colors, I couldn’t do anything. And that was my dark collages phase. But then when I started to heal and my grieving process went on, it helped me to start to use colors and it become more lively or more happier, if I can put it that way. And yes, it does impact your art. But sometimes some people think that I made another collage, a handsome collage, and I gave it to my cousin and he said it’s like, oh my God, there’s so much energy in it and, you know, the red and the yellow and the orange, and it’s like, okay, that’s cool. And I never thought about that. But obviously art means something to so many people and it means different things to different people. And you can explain it whatever you want. And it’s like the one the artist thought about that. Or this, not really. But if you think that’s right for you and that’s your imagination and it’s your mind and intuition telling you, that’s fine.
Gloria Grace Rand
That’s true. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a very subjective thing because I don’t know if you go through galleries or anything and just look at different pieces. I know what I’ve done. In fact, I was actually on a trip to New Mexico recently for my birthday, and my son had treated me to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. And we went to Santa Fe, which is nearby, and they have all these lovely different art galleries, and you walk in and some of these pieces, I’d go, this is art? I don’t know. I mean, it just seems like somebody slapped some paint up there, and yet then there would be other pieces that, again, might have been simple, but it was just something about it that just definitely drew me in. And so it is interesting that everybody reacts to things differently. And who knows? I guess that’s a good thing about it. I suppose. At least it makes it more individual.
Noemi Beres
Absolutely. Yeah. And sometimes when I pick images or photos for my collages, they just start to interact with each other, like, intuitively. You just put some pictures together and they do work together, and that’s funny how they work together and they just come from somewhere, from your subconscious. I don’t know.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, well, it’s true. And I’ve actually done something, I don’t know if you’ve… I forget what, I know what it’s called. It’s called soul collage. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that, but it’s a really cool practice of where you just take a bunch of different pictures, you put them together. Usually they have them on just like a small I think it’s like maybe seven by five inch board, and you just glue them on there. And then afterwards you kind of look at the picture and you sort of ask your higher self to say, okay, so what is this trying to tell me? And see what comes up. Have you ever done that? Maybe looked at one of your pieces afterwards and say, I wonder what this was trying to tell me after the fact?
Noemi Beres
I never heard this expression soul collage, but I love it because it sounds so awesome. But no, actually, yes, that’s like answering to your question. Absolutely. Sometimes when you finish up something, it’s like, okay, wow. What does it say? And what’s the message? And yeah, it’s interesting, but most of the time you don’t think about it when you finish something. And recently I made a couple of pieces and they included a couple of postcards that we bought like, I don’t know, 10, 15 years ago when we were on holiday and when we used to buy postcards because you don’t really do it anymore. But I just found them because we live in Ireland before Cyprus and it’s like all these lovely postcards from Ireland and, oh, these are so crazy, and I can use them in different places. And these are our memories. And I just hang them on the wall. And when I look at them, it’s like, oh, my God, I love that picture and love that vibe. And I love that feeling when we were walking there in Ireland. And yeah, it comes together.
Gloria Grace Rand
What advice would you have for someone maybe who’s let’s say maybe they’re going through a tough time right now and maybe they want to be able to find some sort of outlet to help them move through it. What would you say to them?
Noemi Beres
Just do it. It doesn’t really matter what you do. You don’t have to be an artist or you don’t have to go to school or a course to do a course to do something. But you can knit, you can crochet, you can paint. Just buy a canvas and just paint or draw or make a collage. It’s so easy. You just need glue, paper and put it together because it helps even the repetitive and soothing action of making art. It’s kind of a meditation. You arrive to a different place and space in your head and you definitely find your inner peace and calm from it. So it doesn’t really matter what you do. You can use anything, just do it, just start doing it and you don’t have to show it to anyone. You can just keep it to yourself. You don’t have to organize an exhibition or anything like that, but just for your own entertainment and for your own help.
Gloria Grace Rand
I appreciate that and I think everyone out there will as well. Has there ever been a time when you’ve been working on a piece and you just get like, oh this was a mistake or something like that? Have you ever felt like why did I do this? Or just thrown in the towel and said let me start over?
Noemi Beres
When I repurposed those canvases during pandemic it’s like I didn’t like them. It’s like no, this is not good because there was some paintings I’d done and I’m not so sure about my paintings and I’m much better doing collages and it’s like, okay, I don’t like that. But I incorporated those paintings in my collages so they didn’t go waste and you can still see it’s a painting but I used in the different ways so you can always make something of something, so upcycle stuff. So it helped me in a way to recreate them or give them another life and they are still hanging on my walls and I like them now, but I didn’t really like them before, so yes, of course. I think everybody has the same feelings. Oh, I don’t like that one.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. And I think that’s, I’m glad that you were able to share that because I think sometimes we’re our own worst critics about things. And I think in this process, it’s not really important how good it is or something like that. What’s more important, I think, is the feelings that you get while you’re doing it and maybe the feeling you might have afterwards. What do you think about that?
Noemi Beres
Yeah, absolutely. Because I’m just so excited when I make something because it usually takes me one or two weeks to finish. When I have time to finish an artwork, I’m in no rush. I always take my time because for me, I can say that the journey is much more important for me than the destination. So when I finish a work, when I finish something, a canvas, it’s like, oh, that’s so sad. I would love to make a couple of add some stuff to it, but sometimes less is more, so you don’t have to overflow it with things. But sometimes I’m just sad when I finish something. It’s like, okay, have to get on it. And when I have something on my mind, I have to work on something. I have to start immediately because that’s my flow. And I don’t want to lose my flow when I start doing something. But sometimes it makes me sad when I finish something. It’s like I didn’t want to finish it yet.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, I’m glad you mentioned the flow because that was leading me at what I was thinking about. I wanted to ask you is, have you ever found, like, you got your day job, but you’re like, oh, maybe you got into some time where you’re creating this like, oh, I have to go to work now. I mean, have you ever had that? And how do you kind of balance have you found a way to be able to balance having some fun, but then also doing the things that you need to do to pay the bills?
Noemi Beres
Yeah, that’s the thing in life that I’m pretty organized because my job expects me to do that. I’m kind of master organizer in the agency, so I don’t have time to do art usually during the day, but when the night comes and when the evening comes and when the weekend comes, that’s my time and that’s when I shine and I can do my stuff. And my family respects that and they know that I need that time. And doing collages, especially when they hand sewn, you can do it even in bed. So I’m putting on my audiobooks because I love listening to audiobooks and I can do two things at the same time, so I’m listening to my favorite audiobooks plus doing my collages. And that’s the ultimate relaxation for me. Like during a busy work week or during weekend and I can do that anywhere, but I always have a bit of dedicated time doing that because I just need it in my life.
Gloria Grace Rand
Wow, well that’s good. But I’m wondering what type of audiobooks because I can imagine can’t be something that where you have to learn something because that’s not going to go with the creativity. So I’m assuming you’re listening to fiction or something.
Noemi Beres
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I’m a big romantic and I love all kind of funny books, romantic books, but when I’m listening to my self help books or any kind of book that is more important than I have to make notes or anything, obviously I can’t do that at the same time. They’re just the easy listening and bestsellers and I’m a bookworm, I love reading and I’m listening to books. I love everything about books. So for me it doesn’t really matter as long as I’m listening to something.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, very good, and I agree with that as well. It’s nice to be able to have time to be able to listen to you. I listen to audiobooks when I go for a walk in the morning because that’s a good way for me to be able to get some time in to do that. I wanted to ask you, I love asking my guests this question. So what are you curious about right now?
Noemi Beres
That’s a great question. I’m curious about myself. I don’t know. It’s so funny because I reached a certain age; it’s no secret I’m 43, so I never kept secret about it. And I think after 40, I reached a certain age when I want to learn more about myself. Because in the past ten years, I was so busy with work, with my son, with school, with life, with family, with sickness, illness in the family, and I just didn’t have time for myself to think about who I am really in the world and what’s my purpose in life. And I think when I reached 40, I just became more curious about myself and how to do the next phase. I reached a certain age now and yeah, that’s what I’m curious about right now.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, it’s not surprising. I think there is something about that sort of magical age, I think, between like or that time between like in our 40s when we do start looking at our life again, especially as women, and particularly if we have had kids, because then usually they’re getting older, they’re starting to not need us quite as much, although they will always need you. But it’s not to that same degree as when they were little. And you do finally have a chance to start reflecting and saying, okay, yeah, what do I want to keep doing with the rest of my life? So I’m sure you will figure it out. And I’m sure I suspect that art is still going to be a big part of that. What you’re doing. Actually, and this kind of is a good question. So as you’re pondering this, is there anything that you haven’t had a chance to do in your life that you think that maybe down the road I would like to try my hand at?
Noemi Beres
A bit more traveling because before our son was born, we traveled a lot, especially in Europe and Morocco. And I always loved traveling. But now, because you have a child, he goes to school and then COVID and everything happened and I missed traveling. We still travel between Hungary and Cyprus because that’s where my mom lives. But I missed that part. I would like to discover places I haven’t been to, like Iceland or Greenland because I speak Scandinavian languages. Scandinavia is always like an important part in my heart or the Ferrier Islands and very remote places like that, for example, traveling. And it’s one of the part. And the other thing that I would love to do more making some music because I’m not a musician at all. I love singing, but I’m okayish and I have a hand hang or a handpan I don’t know if you probably use…
Gloria Grace Rand
I have one too. Yeah.
Noemi Beres
Oh my God. We are hang bodies. I got it from my mom for my 40th birthday. That was her gift to me. And I love it. And I would love to be not a professional player, but I would love to play more on it and more professionally, probably. That would be one of our other goals. But that’s an awesome artistic goal for me, I guess. And it’s so relaxing and I love it.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, I got mine for Christmas last year, a year ago. And I’ve still just have been kind of dabbling with it and haven’t really done that much. But it is so nice. In fact, it’s in my closet, like right over there. I’ll have to dig it out. Maybe I’ll do that after I get done recording this interview today and just
Noemi Beres
Yeah, you should.
Gloria Grace Rand
oh, my goodness. Is there anything else that I haven’t asked you about with art that I should have that you’d like to make a point about it, that you’d like our audience to know?
Noemi Beres
Yeah, I think it’s just the stuff that I mentioned before. That how safe art is. And it’s also important to know about art that it’s proven that the creation of art, it always increases the certain level in your brain so you won’t get depressed if you do art. So it’s also instead of like, getting medicines and doing stuff, drinking or whatnot, just do some art because it helps you to reveal your true self and helps you to cope with anything in life. And even it can be dancing or singing and it doesn’t matter. I heard about, I listened to I think probably I can mention them, the Shift Network. You probably know them as well. It’s a huge network and they always have great interviews and great people on their shows. And I heard about the singing therapy they’re using and different sound therapy, what you can do, how you can help your body to relieve stress. And for example, that’s a part of an art form as well, like singing and making different voices and sounds. So yes, it’s just using our creativity and just losing ourselves in it is just so important. And then it will help us to cope with anything in life or anything life throw to us, at us.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, that’s for sure. I know. Oh gosh, this was a while ago, but I had something else, something was going on in my life or something that day that happened or something. And for whatever reason, I think I started off by just like cleaning my office and then I wound up putting on some music and I was dancing around my office and it was just so much fun because I used to take dance lessons when I was a kid and I still miss it. I really enjoyed it. I took ballet, tap and jazz and it was a lot of fun. So, yeah, whatever kind of creative outlet that you can find, no matter what it is, I think it’s so good for, it’s good for your mental health, and it can be good probably for your physical health as well, and certainly good for your emotional health and have fun with it, I think, no matter what. I think that’s probably whatever you’re doing, just make sure that you have some fun at it, because that’s what life’s all about. That’s what the show is about, right? It’s about living fully, loving deeply and all of that. So let’s go have some fun in life. So I’m so glad that we were able to connect and that we have a lot in common too. I’m finding out which cracks me up, but again, it’s no surprise. The universe brings the right people into my life and you’re certainly one of them. Now if someone listening to this today would like to maybe see some of your art and even though you don’t have a show, I believe you have some available somewhere online. I think that people can see it. So where can they do that?
Noemi Beres
Yeah, if you type my name in it’s noemiberes.com, you will find me. And those mostly are my paper collages that I made before. And if you check out Instagram, if you’re Instagram, you can check for Noemiberes art. And I’m also on Facebook. It’s Collage by noemiberes. So different places where you can find me. It’s not always updated. Shame on me. But yes, I’m up there as well and I try my best to update it as much as I can.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, you are a busy lady, so I understand that and I’m sure everybody will too. But I will have all of that information in the show notes so you will be able to connect with Noemi and be able to see all the wonderful stuff she’s up to in the world. And if you are someone who wants to get booked on a podcast, also contact her for that, as well. She found some good guests for me on the show, and I know that’s your other business, so we can put in a plug for that, as well.
Noemi Beres
Thank you so much for your kind words, Gloria. Absolutely. We can help anyone with that, too.
Gloria Grace Rand
Very good. Well, thank you so much again for being with us. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to connecting with you in the future, and I’m sure everybody else will, as well. So thank you so much.
Noemi Beres
Thank you so much for having me, Gloria. I really appreciate it.
Gloria Grace Rand
And I also want to, just, as usual, extend a big thank you to all of you out there who are listening and watching, and I really do appreciate it. And if you’ve got value out of today’s episode, please share it with a friend and leave a comment for us. Our review on Apple podcasts will be wonderful because that’ll help other people find our show, so that’ll be great, too. So until next time, as always, I encourage you to go out and, as I mentioned earlier, go out and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically.
