Compersion

All parts made by Amanda Brezzell

Series: Jealousy and Compersion: A Series For Expanding Your Capacity to Love

Work: Compersion: For letting it burn (pictured).

Collage done on acrylic painted background. Made with photo, metallic, and recycled paper. Cast in Resin on canvas. 16in x 12in

Jealousy and Compersion: A Series For Expanding Your Capacity to Love

Detroit taught me how to Love and be Loved. In my work, I talk a lot about how I allow Love to guide me, but it wasn't until I came back home and built a true Loving community, that I really learned what it means to experience this. These pieces are a snapshot of my experience with Loving and building intimate bonds of varying degrees with friends and romantic interests. These two feelings of Jealousy and Compersion exist for me at the same time sometimes. Some say they are opposites, I like to think of them as mirrors.

Compersion: For letting it burn (pictured).

Compersion is what you get when you find joy in another person's happiness. As well as I remember the heartaches, I remember the first time I truly felt this in my intimate relationships AND had a word for it. I get to experience this often these days and it feels so sweet every time. When I talk to the people I’ve allowed into my heart, and I get to learn about all the ways they experience joy, love, and happiness in their lives, my whole body smiles. The expression of feelings and the acknowledgement of the burning in our chests is what makes the experience so raw, so sacred, and so beautiful.