"Into the Light"
By Deb Paulson and Jean Golicz
May 16 - June 28, 2025
“Into the Light,” an exhibit that combines the arts of painting and poetry, opens in Mercy by the Sea’s Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery on Friday, May 16, and runs through Saturday, June 28. An opening reception featuring the exhibit’s collaborating artists, Deb Paulson, and Jean Golicz, will take place on Friday, May 16, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Paulson says “Into the Light” emerged from conversations with Golicz about how differently people experience winter. “A lot of people fear it because of the darkness,” she says. The two friends realized that, especially as creatives, they love winter. “It’s a time to go inward; all activity stops, and it’s your time to create.”
Mindful of this, they approached “Into the Light” as a way of “reframing darkness as the matrix of creativity.” As they undertook the project, Golicz wrote a collection of poetry inspired by the book of Genesis in the Bible and written through an eco-spiritual lens.
Upon receiving Golicz’s poems, Paulson would read and meditate on them before starting a painting. Through the process, she realized she was painting waves, and in so doing, dealing with a traumatic sailing voyage she experienced in her 20s. As creating “Into the Light” was transformative for Paulson, she hopes others will discover “…what resonates with their personal experience” and bond with the exhibit accordingly.
“Into the Light” is an interdisciplinary exhibit combining the three spiritual practices of Lectio (the poetry) and Visio (the paintings). The third spiritual practice, Terra Divina, comes when guests are encouraged to spend time walking the grounds, beach or seven-circuit labyrinth at Mercy by the Sea after viewing the exhibit. “Getting outside and into nature is our salvation,” Paulson says. From a sailor’s viewpoint, Paulson says time at sea gives an even deeper perception. “When you're outside of land, it's a perfect circle—there's the horizon, the sea and the sky. It opens you up.”
Deb Paulson
Debra Paulson holds a BFA from the University of Connecticut and an MFA from Simmons University. In addition to being a painter, she’s been a video producer, professional weaver, basket maker and children’s book reviewer. The Deep River resident has been a student of Zen Buddhism for 37 years.
Paulson spent her adolescence sailing the East Coast and offshore to Bermuda and the Caribbean with her family. When she bought her sailboat five years ago, she inexplicably became engrossed with the challenge of painting waves in watercolor. A realization struck: her quest to paint the nature of waves was subconsciously a way of working through the long-held trauma of a sailing trip taken in her late 20s.
During the voyage, her family’s 37-foot sailboat was caught in a tropical storm of 50-knot winds and 30-foot seas. “It was terrifying,” she recalls. “I was convinced to the rock bottom of my soul, I was going to die.”
While working on “Into the Light” and its focus on darkness, Paulson had an epiphany. “Darkness, both physical and emotional, is the matrix of creativity.”
Jean Golicz
After retiring as a humanities and social sciences teacher, Golicz transitioned to ministry, completing her postgraduate 6th year in pastoral counseling and a doctoral dissertation in eco-spirituality. As a student of natural revelation, the Old Saybrook resident seeks to deepen her understanding of the Creator, creation, and all creatures, including her rescued animals. She enjoys sharing adventures with her human and more-than-human friends on the summit or the shore. The “Into the Light” poems and paintings are the product of just such a friendship that began on the shores of Long Island Sound. Golicz and Paulson continue to “chilly dip” year-round, enjoying the dark contrast of the water during a full moon and the light display at sunrise.