Dr Wu's Healing Art, who is Dr. Wu

The Artist

Dr. Jing Nuan Wu

Jing Nuan Wu (1933-2002) immigrated to the United States from China as a small child. He was a laundryman's son who graduated from Harvard to become a highly successful venture capitalist on Wall Street.

Reconnecting with his eastern roots, Wu journeyed to Hong Kong to study Chinese philosophy and healing.

He practiced acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine at the Taoist Health Institute in Washington D.C., which he founded in 1973.

Wu began creating art to interpret the holistic ideas of the traditional Chinese healing system.

"My vision for the artwork grew when a patient who was ill with cancer asked me to paint a picture for him. Suddenly I realized that I had found a way to heal many more people than the number I could see in my office every day."

Wu's paintings and sculpture have evolved into therapeutic devices, used to promote health, balance and relaxation by communicating with the inner aspects of our being.

"Visual art can and should be celebrated not only for its aesthetic and decorative value and as a record of historical events but also for its potential to help us express, understand and heal ourselves.

My vision as an artist is to engage the human soul with art. Based on that connection, the colors in my work provide an opportunity for the viewer to experience and work with important resonances that can affect health.

I create living artifacts, objective mirrors to reflect the inner essence, spirit and energy or the beholder. Hopefully my external template can be used by the observer to adjust and refocus dissonances of the powers within and thus transform imbalance to harmony and well-being.

The quest for the transcendental experience has been a popular trip for mystics, and religious persons through the ages. They have followed the paths of meditation and spiritual practice. In the empirical vision and methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine, entry to the transcendental is an every day experience.

The most significant outward manifestation of the transcendental state is relaxation of the physical body. I attempt with my art to change and to reset the clockwork of our inner being to the most beneficial and health inducing rhythm. \/\/hen reset and unburdened from the tics of anxiety and social pressure, one's being enters a calm field where new patterns of behavior can develop and take hold within. These quiet inner fields are my new medical country and my artwork is the way of passage."

Wu has lectured on his art at:
National Botanical Gardens, Washington D.C.
National Museum of Medicine, Bethesda Maryland;
The Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico;
The Open Center, New York, New York;
The Medical College of Ohio, Toledo Ohio
Public Television.

Xiang

©Wu's Healing Art 2005

The Philosophy

"I believe art is a natural and universal means to promote wellness. Art has already been endowed with the power to help one get in touch with one's inner self. Taking that a step further, art also helps one get in touch with the physical body and the self-healing ability. The process of experiencing and looking at artwork can be just as transformative as its creation.
Art has long been included in curricula to enrich or enhance the quality or education because it enhances the quality of life. Art decorates and beautifies certainly but why does that improve quality? The answer is the actual physical transformations or improvements that can and do occur in human beings' body/mind/soul because of the beauty or sensual stimulation or art."

The Reminder

Isatis Dr. Wu saw his work as mirrors to the soul. His art is a reminder to all of us that doctors can prescribe and operate and offer advice, but, through our choices and decisions, we control the power to heal ourselves and the responsibility for maintaining our well-being.

Ultimately, the answer to the question, "Who is Dr. WU?" is "YOU!"