Meet Miriam Zimms a 2022 graduate of our Certificate Training Program. We are excited to feature her as our monthly Alumni Spotlight! We think you will be inspired by her work as an Artist, Teaching Artist & Arts in Health Advocate! |
Miriam Zimms Artist, Teaching Artist & Arts in Health Advocate www.encasawithm.com Lutz, FL (Tampa area) |
After a very successful 22-year career as a national environmental consultant, Miriam came to the healing arts in 2010 at the Arts in Medicine (AIM) studio at Moffitt Cancer Center. Their program is 25+ years old and based on Expressive Arts principles. After a body battle
with two separate cancers and using the studio to establish a daily healing-arts practice, Miriam's body and life changed. As an Emerging and “Outsider” Artist who did not come through the traditional route,
Miriam's arts practice helps her focus away from pain, anxiety, and other issues she had never experienced before. She showcases abstract art of body loss and botanicals. Her art is created using lines and colors that transfer a story of pain, resilience and hope from her body and mind into every stroke. Each unique piece can be viewed as an explorative expression that tells a symbolic story, inviting the viewer to connect to their own experience or feelings. Miriam is also a teaching artist in the community that spreads the words that there are "no mistakes" in the arts and "anything is possible one step and stroke at a time." She draws, paints, sings, writes or moves to music daily and advocates for and presents on the power of art to heal and making art accessible to all. Miriam facilitates "Expressive
Tangling" that combines both the Zentangle Art Method and Expressive Arts into a meditative art exploration. Miriam is a member of IEATA; a Board Member for the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH); a registered artist with Arts4All Florida that provides support services and education to FL artists with
disabilities; and a "Presenter" for the Franciscan Retreat Center. |
Miriam, what drew you to the field of Expressive Arts, or motivated you to get Expressive Arts training? |
Since the Arts in Medicine studio at my cancer center built their program off the fundamentals of expressive arts, I always felt at home there. I have a former boss and mentor who had received her certificate in EA from EAFI and she and another graduate convinced me
that I needed to gain my certificates. They also explained to me that the healing and meditative arts I had been doing was Expressive Arts. I had been driving down to Sarasota to take EAFI classes off and on for over 7 years. I then ran into Kathleen and Tamara at an Arts in Health event in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I felt like the universe was speaking to me and I was being led into a direction that I would explore. So I decided to take the plunge to expand my toolbox through education and
training at EAFI. I finished my training in December 2022 and received my certificates in January 2023. Faces of Courage Cancer Camp Drumming Circle Participant Brandon, FL |
As you began to immerse yourself in this work, were there any unexpected gifts or surprises? |
The gift offered to me since 2013 is the word ABUNDANCE. The doors keep opening up for me beyond my wildest dreams - gallery shows for the healing arts; opportunities as a teaching artist; speaking engagements to talk about the healing arts; and media exposure for Arts In Health. Just when I think I am beyond receiving any more abundance, another surprise pops up. I am continually kept in a state of exploration. If you have followed me since
2013, you know that my "call sign" is "Create. Express. Explore." And for life over cancer it has been "Feel. Speak. Act." since 2010. I think what I love the most about what abundance teaches me is to "Pay it Forward" and I do that in several ways to students, organizations in the community, and my peers. Expressive Introspection Miriam’s Private Class Asheville, NC
How are you currently implementing expressive arts in your personal and/or professional life?
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Since 2013, I have maintained a personal daily arts practice. For 7 months post-surgery, I was flat on my back and was able to witness the self-benefits a daily arts practice had on my overall wellness. Since I was a child, in business as an adult, and in the last decade in creating, I understand that practice makes permanent, not perfect.
Professionally, I focus in three areas as a teaching artist: 1) community partners 2) private events and 3) Free/PayItFoward classes online both locally and across the world. I have had the utmost good fortune to spread Expressive Arts and Zentangle Art to cancer organizations, cultural arts centers, libraries, corporate wellness events for staff, spiritual retreat centers, botanical and quilting associations and much more. My goals are more of letting the roadmap of life's energy guide me. I never mapped any of my life purpose out since 2013, when my life changed forever. I trust much more than the process. I trust life. I trust my faith. I trust mother nature. I trust myself to know what
partnerships are the right ones for me. As a Latina woman without children due to cancers, the legacy I am leaving is in God's hands. It sure feels good. I trust her completely and know that the "road less traveled" life she gave me also provided me with the "journey of a lifetime" to be myself. Some people don't understand me when they first meet me, but what I tell them is my mother gave me self-confidence because it was through her discrimination and silence that I found my
voice and my salvation. I honor my mother with giving me the gift of life. I love and miss you, Rosa. |
Expressive Tangling Miriam’s class for parents & siblings of children with cancer Children’s Cancer Center Tampa, FL How has Expressive Arts enriched or expanded your career path? |
At the end of 2023, several new organizations reached out to me with referrals from existing partners. This has opened the door for me to expand my education and outreach for ExA into social justice issues that I know myself, because I experienced them: discrimination for being brown, unexpressed feelings that come with being a first generation immigrant, and experiencing mental, physical and emotional trauma myself. This year I am excited to offer
my immigrant and body trauma stories, respectively, with all my training in working with the following organizations: 1) A Tampa organization called Operation Restore that has a team that offers retreats to first responders (police and firemen/women) 2) Girls of Color THRIVE - a brown and black girl Summit in St. Petersburg 3) "Finding the Best in Both Worlds" with immigrant teenagers in partnership with Hispanic Services Council. Every year, my life is enriched and my path is expanded
beyond my wildest dreams. I am grateful. |
Expressive Tangling Private Class Miriam and children Apopka, FL
What is your current personal
practice and how does it enrich your life? |
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't choose one or more of the modalities to "Create. Express. Explore." It may be as simple as tangling at night or during the day on our patio or at my desk. It may be as fun as listening to music and moving to the beat and rhythm that as a Latina, I feel to my core. It may be a release by making sounds by going outside and yelling, singing, sometimes screaming words that come up from inside; or writing in my
journal or on my digital journal; or taking previous expressive writing and creating visual art from it. The thing I am the most proud of is that ALL my expressive arts writing is now in my digital journal. I even on occasion invite the waiters at our favorite Italian restaurant, along with the night's performers, to sing or dance with me. They do it! How does it enrich my life? These things, along with my husband, Mitch, give me hope, joy, faith, and courage every day to keep on going to keep
on living and to keep on being a Camponea de La Vida (Champion of Life).
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Art as A Healing Daily Practice Zentangle Meditative Art by Miriam What do you wish you could tell the world about Expressive Arts? I've had the opportunity to share the Expressive Arts in so many ways locally, in my state, and nationally. Anything written or recorded about my journey clearly depicts my passion for creative exploration; shows that anyone can create anywhere, anytime, and that self-expression through the arts should be accessible to all. This
is what I am currently advocating for one person at a time. This is my "mamasita" legacy. Three Faces of Frida Carrollwood Cultural Arts Center, Hispanic Heritage Gallery Show Tampa,
FL
What are you currently offering, and what are the ways that people can work with you? 1) Free/Pay-It-Forward self-care classes - Meditative Mondays and Soulful Sunday, making the arts accessible to all.
2) Spring/Summer - I will be offering private expressive arts classes that feature the patterns of Guatemala, nature botanicals, and labyrinths.
3) In May, I
will be the featured teaching artist on World Labyrinth Day at the Franciscan Retreat Center, on the Hillsborough River, where I will be showcasing Expressive Arts and Zentangle Meditative Art.
4) Later this year, I plan to relaunch a workshop/retreat called the Art of Business, along with an EAFI peer. It merges left brain thinking and right brain creativity to produce a business and
marketing plan for your art, sole proprietor business.
5) I also hope to partner with another ExA peer for a class we designed together during our EAFI training.
Note: You can find these classes and register for them on my website at Classes/Class Calendar. Or
please subscribe to my newsletter to stay in touch; and put me on your mailing list too. We are all in this together.
Community Expressive Art Recycle Florida Today Summer Conference Naples, FL
Anything else you would like to say? Yes, you may not believe it from reading all this, but I do say no to a lot of things I am
asked to participate in. My second cancer, post surgery, left me with not only a disability but about a 60% personal energy gas tank. So, I also refer people or organizations to my peers. Resting is also a daily practice for me, along with healthy eating, exercise, my spiritual practice, writing, music, and movement. My long-term goal is to continue beating the cancers' statistics that follow me everywhere I go and to live life to the fullest every moment of every day with the loving
support of my husband, our 25 tortoises, and the birds that are our children on Lake Brant. |
Watch for our Alumni Spotlight on the 15th of each month. We feature graduates of our Certificate Training Program - Expressive Arts Facilitators, Therapists, and Educators. We hope this series will inspire you, help spread the work of our alumni, and demonstrate the scope of
practice of the expressive arts field. For more information about our Certificate Training Program, Professional Development, and Workshops - both online and in-person, visit us at www.expressiveartsflorida.com Tamara Teeter Knapp MA, Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern, REACE® Kathleen Horne MA, LMHC(S), REACE®, REAT® |
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