Newport Beach artist to host second ‘Healing House’ in Beverly Hills
Newport Beach artist Britt Michaelian thinks a lot about what her purpose in life is.
Michaelian, a practitioner of holistic healing practices like reiki, quantum healing and stone medicine, said it took her a long time before she finally came around to that purpose. A painter by trade, she initially went the traditional path of art exhibition after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996 with work shown in places all over the country including Los Angeles and New York.
She later completed her master’s in marriage and family therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University in 2002 and went on to do her practicum at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center.
Michaelian’s world stopped when her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.
“We kind of gathered the family and ... we moved to Southern California to support my mother. I decided I was going to take a break and focus on my mom and her healing. I was doing businesses on the side [while taking care of her] and doing things like life coaching and social influencer work, and I just got to the point where I was like, ‘This wasn’t why I was put on this Earth,’” Michaelian said in a recent interview. “I know I’m supposed to be an artist, and my mom was one of my biggest advocates in becoming an artist. She was an interior designer up in Silicon Valley.
“My mom and I were really close, and when she passed [in 2012], it made me reevaluate everything,” she said. “Then, my sister, a few years later, also got diagnosed with cancer. At the time, I finished the first two levels of reiki training and was looking into taking a master course and diving into other types of healing because I wanted to potentially help my sister. It became clear that she was very sick and, after a four-year journey with cancer and all types of healing work, she left very peacefully.”
By then, Michaelian said she had basically stopped creating and painting in favor of taking care of her family. But when her sister got her a paint-by-numbers set to do while she was being cared for, Michaelian finally picked up the brush again.
But she wanted to do something different.
While meditating during a quantum healing retreat, she decided to change the way she approached art — shifting the focus of creating from purely processing feelings to projecting positive intentions and feelings.
Michaelian said her artwork is intertwined with alternative healing practices and, as part of that she is hosting “Healing House” — an event at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on May 19. It’s the second time she has hosted this event, with the first last year in Laguna Beach. The free event focuses on art and wellness.
About 20 of her pieces will be exhibited there, each named after a mantra or with a mantra written on its canvas. They vary in sizes, from 2 feet by 2 feet to five feet wide, and include a copper coil in the back . She uses non-toxic, plant-based acrylics and powdered crystals in her work.
“Healing House” includes healing frequency sounds, sound baths, meditation and other forms of group healing. It is co-sponsored by app WellSet.
Michaelian said she knows there are plenty of skeptics out there, but she welcomes them to enter and enjoy the space.
“Right now, we’re at such a transition in so many ways. Quantum physics, in particular, is getting a lot more attention because they are able to prove that there are certain phenomena that can and do happen. But the bottom line is that we all know we’re made of energy. Healing, in particular — it is about the intention behind it and the thought process behind it,” Michaelian said.
“We know certain thoughts that are maybe negative or not healthy in some way can cause a lack of ease and disease in the body. The opposite is true as well. Simply based on that, if we’re talking about positive thoughts that can impact your body positively, then viewing art that has good intentions is going to translate to having a good effect on your body physically and emotionally,” she said. “Even if this is just planting the seed for naysayers, maybe it will become, ‘This is something interesting that I should pay attention to.’
“Sometimes, that seed may not blossom until some years later, but my current goal is to have a place where, even if they don’t believe, they are coming into a room and have the ability to feel present and feel unconditional love. Being surrounded by people with that same intention, that can be really powerful.”
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