Margot Schiemann is a London-based psychotherapist and visual artist. She has exhibited at the Institute of Group Analysis, the Medical Art Society and Burgh House, among others. This month, she’s showing her collection Riverbanks of Grief at the Tavistock Centre in North London.

Speaking at the exhibition launch last Friday, Margot discussed the word “trauma”, arguing that it’s sometimes overused, or even used incorrectly. “Instead, I prefer to talk about suffering, distress, despair which we all experience in one shape and form or another. It’s a human condition,” she said. “We all experience losses of loved ones and have to go through grieving and mourning.”

She Remembers by Margot Schiemann, mixed media [source]

She praised art as a powerful mean of communication, able to express something that one can’t with language. “It’s like trying to translate music – you can’t put it into words,” she said. “Art is a way of expressing emotions, ideas, thoughts, feelings. It connects us with the unconscious.”

Margot referred to psychoanalyst Marion Milner, who struggled with creativity and wrote the book On Not Being Able to Paint. “Towards the later phase of her life, she did start to paint and draw,” Margot explained, “and found that she was expressing something more profound than what she was able to communicate through the language.”

Margot held a Q&A session with the guests which gave an insight into her creative process.

How impactful can be the art that you surround yourself with?

“I’m careful about what I put on my walls, and it’s not necessarily my own work. During lockdown I bought a painting which I don’t like very much anymore. It’s a very pretty image of a woman reading under a blossom tree in Hampstead Heath. At that time, it was very meaningful and comforting, but I’m not so sure about it now.”

Does it take courage to show your work to the audience?

“Not at all. I think it’s important to just show the work and deal with whatever it is that the audience makes of it. Showing the work and communicating through it is part of the creative process and moving on.”

Riverbanks of Grief consists of 13 mixed media artworks and is complimented with a book of art and poetry. In the artist’s words, the show “explores predicaments of the human condition. I wanted to express something painful and profoundly powerful, but also show a way forward and hold on to hope.”

Margot Schiemann’s Riverbanks of Grief runs until 28th November 2024 at the Tavistock Centre, 120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA.

Visit Margot’s art website.