New art gallery ‘Healing Threads’ opens at LCCC

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - This workshop is fantastic, the students are great,” said Tiffany Matheson.

Artist tiffany Matheson hosted an art workshop at Laramie County Community College, where students learned how to make flexible fabric circuits.

“They’re making a bookmark booklight, so they’ll make it out of felt and it’ll light up, and it’s bendy and flexy,” said Matheson.

“I of course try to expose my students to a lot of ideas and materials, but bringing another voice into the classroom with more experience is a real beneficial thing,” said Daniel Maw, Art Instructor and Gallery Director at LCCC.

Tiffany’s art exhibit, “Healing Threads” is currently on display at LCCC’s Esther and John Clay Fine Arts Gallery.

“I am so excited about sharing this piece, because i don’t think a lot of people are aware of iboga as a plant medicine, and I think we’re kind of in this era right now as a society where we’re culturally starting to wake up, and we’re realizing we’ve been sitting with generational trauma for a long time,” said Matheson.

The inspiration for her piece came after an experience at a Costa Rican wellness center focused on iboga treatments last year.

“The changes that it brought about me were really profound. I used to struggle really really difficulty with anxiety and depression, and it obliterated my anxiety and depression, and it showed me pieces of myself and helped me work through a lot of my trauma,” said Matheson.

She is very passionate about sharing her experience of healing with others, through her art.

“I wanted people to be aware that something like this exists. so its just about bringing that awareness into the community, and kind of sharing all the good that I got from it, I wanna share it with other people,”

A unique element of the exhibit is that you’re able to touch the art. “I feel like the more senses you engage, the more into the piece, into the experience you really are. so you’ll get this tactile sensation, its double sided satin so it’s nice and soft and also makes this nice kind of ‘woosh woosh’ sound when you’re going through it, and then you have the visual aspect as well. so you’re hearing, you’re seeing, you’re touching. so i want everyone to be really engaged with bringing their own heart, their own journey into this piece,” said Matheson.

Each element of the exhibit represents a piece of her personal journey to healing. “The black ribbon that’s on the outside is kind of like all that suffering and anxiety and all that difficult stuff we have to wade through in life, cause trauma’s part of our human condition, and as you walk through, the shift from the black ribbon to the colored ribbon, its an example of the transformation that I went through, with a sculpture of the iboga plant hanging in the center,” said Matheson.

She hopes that by sharing her art, she encourages others to begin their healing journey.

“The main reason for this exhibition is to facilitate healing in the community,” said Matheson.

To visit the display, head to the LCCC Esther and John Clay Fine Arts Gallery now until December 14th, Monday - Friday, from 8am to 5pm.

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