My beautiful wife of 25 years passed away on June 4th 2019. I used to sketch every day and my only admirer was my wife who always had a complement saying: "beautiful". After her passing I stopped for two years. I just started again and is helping me with my loss.

I don't know why I cried when he talked about how drawing helped him to see his wife as the wonderful human she was and not as a problem. That's really the purpose of art: It helps us see things in it's true light and beyond the shadows of our judgement. ❤️

This is the most wholesome video I've ever seen on this platform in 15 years. This guy deserves recognition for what he does. Thank you, sir.

My husband became an incomplete quad back in ‘81 when we were 25. We had plans for 7 years to marry a year after he graduated from college. Five months later during Thanksgiving weekend he broke his neck snow skiing. We’re still together 41 years later, and I can say over the years I have accepted God’s plan for my life in a bittersweet way…. I get bouts of depression and have had a hard time getting inspired to draw or paint or journal even though I know it feels good to get in the timelessness of the zone. I do feel as if I have been meditating for a few hours when I am finished. I’m glad to find you and hear your experience and how doing art is inspiring you. Thanks for your transparency about your journey; it makes others inspired and not so alone in our sometimes lonely and painful times.

I am almost 83 and I love to draw. Very relaxing!

I knew someone who made little houses out of cardboard boxes she cut up. She said she couldn’t afford other supplies. She had an impressive little village.

I’m going to try this beginning tomorrow after a year of health crisis, anxiety and depression. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I have got bipolar & a host of other labels, I left therapy after 10 years in December, I was getting worse and instead started drawing & painting everyday, immersing myself in the process and learning all about watercolour. I feel peaceful, my anxiety has reduced tenfold, I am beginning to see the world differently, albeit in tonal values and composition, but it is so powerful. I have tried to meditate for years but the things that have always helped are walking, going to the gym, journaling and drawing. Looks like I’m going to incorporate drawing with writing and create illustrated journals from now on. One step at a time. No mania, no depression or anxiety, just step by step and day by day.

I’ve drawn all my life; I went to art school and worked in industry until I went freelance in 1986, the year before my sons birth. My son drowned at the age of 26 and drawing and painting is the only thing that keeps me sane. It helps me forget the nightmare that is my life and the continual sadness and anger just for a few brief hours at a time.

Thank you. I am affirmed. I am not wasting time. Your gift has done its job. Thank you.

I’m 51 and was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s at 48. I started teaching myself to draw this year and it’s been so helpful for me. Today is my 15th wedding anniversary and I’ve finally been able to admit, today, on a rare day out together to my husband, that I actually feel disabled, and you know what? It was ok. I’m finding other ways to live and drawing is a big part of it. Thank you for sharing with us xxx PS the one thing I’ve never thought is why me? Why the hell not me? I’m not the only one. Doesn’t mean I haven’t cried coming to terms with it, but you know….sending so much love your way xxxx

Thank you 😔💝grateful for your sharing- lost my husband to complications of Parkinson’s and it’s taken four years to climb out of the sadness- because of drawing 💝

"...not a problem to be solved." Thank you, very much, for sharing this.

You mentioned two things toward the end that grabbed me; connecting with blessings, the communions. Know God, see Him in everything. No God, see Him in nothing. I see Him in the gift He gave you that helped heal you. We live in a broken world. He can use anything in a life, and He is.

During the pandemic, I developed severe depression, and one night had a psychotic breakdown. That was the most horrible time of my life, I truly believed that if hell was real, it was in my head. But after some medication, Someday I just bought a paintbrush and watercolor set, and life really changed after that. I could not paint at all before but during that time of the pandemic, painting was the only thing that kept me sane. I am a lot better now, and I always carry my painting equipment everywhere now.

You are healing others whilst you're healing yourself.

This is the most beautiful and touching video I EVER watched. Your art healed you and now you help thousands of people to the same process. You're special, you're a great person, an amazing human being and a inspirational talented artist. I'm so glad of being of your followers. XOXO Marcelo

My husband was paralyzed at the age of 29. We had 2 kids. His accident was excruciating. I've painted him in oils 3xs. Creative endeavors have been an integral part of my life. If I go a period of time without creating, I get depressed. THANK YOU for reminding me how important it is to continue creating every day. We have been married 46 years, so far.

A big hug...to your whole family.

Drawing is one of the few things that make me present

Creative people HAVE to create. When my artist friends are going thru hell, I always provide this simple guidance: "whrn your going thru hell, keep going. ART WILL SAVE YOU. and then, if needed, i teach the art of hole digging - as my right brained cohorts frequently dig their holes

I'm so sorry. Life can be so cruel sometimes.

It’s timely that you shared this. When I was young, I had a gift of drawing and painting. It was my escape- my healing from a severely abusive childhood. I could go into my world and bring out beauty. As I grew, I got even better, until I left home and went to college. I became so busy with a full time job and going to school that art was tossed on a back burner. Several years later, I tried to pick it back up. I was horrified. I couldn’t even draw a stick house. I had convinced myself that my gift was given to me to cope and now I no longer needed it and the gift had to go to another child. I felt guilt over my anger about not being able to draw and paint like I once did. Over the years, life became so busy and I just put it out of my mind. After 40 years, I decided to try again. I tried different media and other crafts. I allowed myself to receive my gift and not hold onto that silly belief from my childhood that I could only have it for awhile and had to return it to the Universe. My awareness that we all have these gifts, sometimes only dormant, can sprout at anytime we are willing to let a little light in. Thank you, again for sharing. I enjoy your channel. We all need hope. Without hope, we might as well be dead.

This is what your wife probably would want too, not to be pitied as someone who got "broken", but to be still seen for who she is, even if she now has a handicap. I don't say this to judge you, I get that people who have close bonds to disabled people sometimes feel this way, they really pity them, they seem to grieve for them to a fault, and I can see why, no one wants to see their wife being permanently bound to a wheelchair, but sometimes that pain, that sadness we feel for another person can blind us, and prevent us for seeing that they're still the same person we knew and loved, they're not less for being disabled. That's what makes this so beautiful.

I subscribed to this Channel because at 59, I want to be an Artist. Years ago my Wife had Cancer and it was my Hobby which was Beekeeping that kept me going. I wish It was Drawing looking back.

Love thus. My life changed 9 years ago. Ive been in a daze. Im now 49 and have just "lost a decade" .......,, i need to learn how to draw. And sing etc. bless you I hope your life is still improving

Art is therapy. Or can be if the artist let's it happen. Tomorrow I'm buying a sketchbook. Decades ago I sketched every single day and loved it. Life happened and I stopped but I need it - the therapy - very much now. Thanks Danny.

My husband had a bad stroke and died three months later. Fortunately, I had already discovered art journaling five years previously and it was such a solace. At a widows’ support group I introduced another widow to art journaling and we started a local sketching group. Art certainly helped me get on with my life.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. After I left a domestic violence marriage and was in trauma, I just kept painting and painting and painting and realized that it was healing me. I now have a nonprofit called Sophie‘s dream to help people heal from the trauma and PTSD through the arts. God created music and dance and art for us to heal…Thank you so much for sharing your story, journey and strength and say prayers for me as I do my best to help others heal as well.

This was affirming to me. When you spoke about how you don’t have to teach children how to draw I cried. The expectations and standards I put on myself as an artist always slows me down or halts me. But lately I’ve been trying to throw those expectations out the window. And it has helped. Thanks for affirming that for me. Thanks for sharing your story. It was very touching. Thank you!

I would die to be loved like that.

The most beautiful video on KZfaq. A testament to the healing power of art.

This channel has officially become my favourite one on KZfaq. When I had stopped drawing it was you who motivated me to pick up my sketchbook again. I am extremely grateful for the videos you post

After my beloved dog died, I wrote the story of his life through his words. His story, my illustrations. I was deep in grief from his death and drawing our life together was incredibly healing - way better than having photographs to remember him by. Thank you for sharing your story Danny, you are always so inspiring through your honesty.

During the isolation of this pandemic my touretts came out. When the motor ticks became so bad I couldn't live with myself I got involved painting murals for our community. I was present in the world again. I wasn't hurting anymore. My impulse control is regained. Art is a gift.

Thank you for your video and it made me memory a flashback. I had a familiar experience two years ago. I lost contact with an important person in my life. I cried every night and then, I searched for each familiar face in the crowd. I started to read and draw from that time onwards. I found that I could read all love stories, and sketch all the happy couples who walk along the beach hand in hand. I learned to be strong and alone, I also found beauty through sketching in my life. I deeply realized that sketching has the super power of healing. Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

A return to drawing and painting has kept me sane during the past 10 years of my husband’s mental illness. Sketching produces such a sense of freedom and a release from the inner critic. No perfection required. Thanks for this video. I’ll rewatch it often.

I cried too. This man is so inspiring. I'm picking up a 2B pencil.

I needed to hear THIS message right now. Thank you so much.

Absolutely wonderful. There are millions who need to hear this. Hope all of them hears this and finds their inspiration to move on

Beautiful words, I too was healed by drawing... It continues to give me a reason to keep living and loving. ❤

Thank you for sharing your story with us! "Everywhere I saw beauty and I felt love"

THIS MAN IS SUCH A POET !! how he speak and describe his experience

Dude... you are a guru. That is to say, you are what gurus SHOULD be. Through your "superpower" you tap into the larger truths of life and beckon the rest of us, not to learn from you... but rather to learn WITH you. Thanks for these great vids.

''Drawing turned out to just be the ticket to the experience.'' Beautiful!

Ah, the line that things around us are waiting to be seen was an ah ha moment for me. I am sitting in my car eating lunch at work and when you said that I looked up from the video and looked around and thought look at the hundreds of things right in front of me waiting to be seen, Trees and buildings and plants and bushes and agapanthus and cars just to name a few. I love that line! I’m gonna put it in my sketchbook, And look at the world differently now. Thank you.

How courageous and wonderful you are to have told your story. You are inspiring to so many.

God has blessed you beautiful human being. Create, love, hope 🙏🕊️🙏

It has healed me also. I tell people it opened the door to my now happy life.

This video may have just now saved my life from a continuous pit of despair.

Amazing life history of an artist

I hope that the metaphor of your first drawing of the medicine cabinet isn't lost on you. It looks to me like the drawing was the literal medicine, the medicine cabinet was the symbol.

"This peace I was looking for so long was right there, between the floss and the q-tips" :) I love this.

I get what you were saying. My feet are not what I would call pretty, but I drew them once and felt love for myself open up. I saw my character in my feet as I drew them and I lit up from within. It was not about taking thought at all. It felt magical just as you expressed in this video. Thanks. I think we experience ourself in the other this way , in a flower, leaf, cat, whatever. I have heard that people are healed of depression by doing self portraits of themselves from mirror images.

Profound. "To Feel love for the world. And to heal myself."

6am? I'll catch it as soon as I can. I could use some healing

I've had a few lifetimes of trauma. I have this recurring dream about crossing the Canadian border without a passport. This dream happens every few weeks. This has been going on for years. A few days ago I had the dream again. Why? I don't know. So I drew the Canadian 🍁. Outside the leaf was a representation of every single trauma I felt. Inside the leaf was a beautiful peaceful scene. For a few weeks I was angry and bitter. I lost my child and tossed away the last thing of theirs. It was put in our burn pile and burnt down to ashes. My heart was aching. By the time I was finished the peice I felt at peace, calm, and quite frankly happy.

A sketchbook saved my life as well. Love ya Bro.

I lost my father in 2020. I’m not an artist, but I remember him showing me how to do pyrography (woodburning.) I couldn’t stop woodburning images. Your video really touched my heart and now I enjoy watercolor painting that I sometimes add to my woodburning projects, I’m ready to go on this learning to draw journey with you. Thanks for this video. You have a new subscriber.😊👍

Thank you for this Danny. As a registered Art Therapist this story helps me to see the work I do is valid. I so appreciate you sharing your story and journey.

I’ve struggled with depression for decades. Making art has saved my life. When I paint I’m immersed in the process of making art where depression is now manageable. Making art gives me a rest .

Even as someone young, I've went through loss and other forms of hurt. From love to depression and so on. Being able to draw helped me so much.

Drawing has been my healing too. So thankful for God, to give me a heart to draw. Although, I Drawing on my cheap tablet not iPad. The whole process bring me to Another realm, my zen zone. Even until this day, when my life goes low valley, I start to draw again. " Drawing to live. Living to draw" has been my life slogan. I can't imagine one day passing without Drawing. Thank God for the passion for drawing.

What a beautiful gentle soul you are.... despite.

Hearing this made me cry, especially the way you describe how drawing helped you. Helped you slow down. Helped you see not just what's in front of you, but life itself. The world is waiting, we just need to slow down enough to notice it. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for sharing your story! We all need healing sometimes. Love and respect for you and your wife.

There is something very spiritual about your story. While you confided in monks, ministers etc, you got the spirituality from inside of yourself, you can tell by the calm in your voice.

Explore art and discover life! Glad you shared this. I think too many people think being an artist is a career choice. I think art is the practice of appreciation and expression, regardless if your "day job".

I know this feeling When i stoped draw , i forget how to look at beauty of my life .

i'm here watching this on 9 june 2022 thank you for sharing your story

Oh my...thank you, Danny. I feel a bit of life returning with every video of yours that I watch. This is one I'll come back to...many, many times I'm sure. You are such a blessing, and I'm very grateful. 🙏

TURN THIS MAN INTO A MOVIEEEEE

Thank you… to heal, I too, draw. So much joy🥰♥️

It’s amazing to see the difference in your face between the past and now. Your younger self seems older, based on the photographs. Your energy now is clear and bright and childlike. Your younger self bears the weight of his struggles. This is the effects of healing through art. Thank you for sharing!

Dear Mr. Gregory, I am one of those people, watching and enjoying your videos, but never commenting. Now I just have to... Thank you so very much for sharing this! I won't go into detail about how this hits home, but it does in more ways than one. This video made me cry, the ugly cry! That's a good thing :) Please know, your videos are a part of my own journey of acceptance and hopefully healing. So again, thank you... Not just for this one, but for the others as well. Love to you and your precious family 🙏🏻

Thank you Danny. My son was born with profound disabilities 31 years ago so understand about your struggles to come to terms with your wife's accident. I have only fairly recently (at age 58) started to learn how to paint - and am now learning to draw. I loved your comment about "turn the page and leave the drawing behind like an old banana peel". I have been grappling with how "good" my drawings are but absolutely get into the zone and relax when creating them - which as you say - is the point! I have written your comment into my sketchbook as a reminder when I need it. All power to you and your family.

I just found your channel about an hour ago (I believe God directed me to your channel) and oh, my goodness...this post got to me! Bless you. Thank you so much for sharing you and Patty's story and how you found your way out of darkness. I'm also emerging from darkness and I do believe drawing in a sketchbook may be a ticket for me to get back to the light as well. Thank you a thousand times.

My first art journal was the only way I could talk to my counsellor for 18 months. I was drawing my diagnosis out on the pages long before she told me what it was. I think art is a way our minds intuitively go about healing us.

What an impactful event you spoke about. Sorry about your wife and the feelings you had for a while, however, glad you found an escape route that to this day is profoundly positive in your life.

Good God this made me cry. I relate as drawing was healing for me while. I battled cancer. It is a super power

I didn’t know why I discovered making art, beyond doodles, during the pandemic. But painting, drawing…It got me through it. But I didn’t understand the sketchbook appeal. And now my twin sister has been diagnosed with something terrifying. I will start a sketchbook because of your beautiful video. Thank you.

I’m trying to heal myself through drawing. Trying to put stitches on my heart. I’m 50 and I had never drawn after elementary school. I’m studying hard, I’m trying to understand movement, space, dimension. I’m looking for a balance in a life with no balance

Thanks so much for sharing your story, both tragic and beautiful at once. The thing that made my heart skip a beat is because a woman recently was pushed ahead of a subway in NYC and killed and I used to take those subways all the time to work in Manhattan many moons ago in the late 1960s and early 70s as a fashion illustrator. I always tried to stand back far away from the edge having heard that those things can happen and didn't get close to the train until it pulled up and the doors opened! But they were so crowded even back then like sardines in a can! I would lose myself in Tolkein's Lord of the Ring Trilogy, starting with "The Hobbit" it's a wonder I even remembered to get off the train! I've been through a lot of stress and great loss since then, my mother to cancer when I was 21, my late husband and recently my two beloved cats and other ones as well in the past and my beloved middle daughter to Covid19 at age 41 after she was in a coma like state/brain injured for 16 years since she was 25. I also helped raise my oldest granddaughter , her daughter which we've been blessed with and my youngest 14 year old granddaughter is a really talented artist and is always doing cartoons and digital art on the computer. I'm going to tell her about your great helpful videos here. We're never to young or too old to learn something new! The arts are food for the soul and art and music for me, heals in more ways than one. Blessed be~

Painting, drawing and creating, in whatever venue we are gifted with, is a door that allows us to spend time examining those. hurts, and painful experiences, and then turn. and walk out of that room. It does offer relief. I remember when I was 28 and remarried, with 3 children from my first marriage. My new husband's parents and other relatives of his were bothered he married a woman with 'baggage'. One of his aunts even had the audacity to tell me it was not fair to expect her nephew to support kids that were not his own. Even after our son was born it just got worse. When he was around 8, the grandfather(my father in law) was berating him one day and my son began crying. I let the dad know it was not acceptable. It got ugly and my husbands dad told his son he didn't care if he never saw his grandson again. Yes, this was the family I had married into. Every day was a new adventure into ugliness.I've always used art as a way to vent, and as I began to spiral into depression, I began to paint my feelings. One painting I did, I called Emperor Reversed. The meaning was in relation to the #4 card of the tarot, The Emperor. The meaning is the male energy, but reversed would be the negative aspect of that energy. It was a picture of all of us sitting in the living room for a family portrait, everyone painted in gray tones. Then it showed me and my son leaving the picture, with the outward portions of our bodies gaining color as we exited the room. All of the women in the picture had male symbols over their mouths, that were sewn shut.When I finished the painting, I looked it it and unexpectedly tears started streaming down my face, and I felt this immense relief. Of course, we divorced years later, but even then my. husband never understood the painting and thought it was a 'nice family portrait' and tried to keep it when we lived apart. Blind, even to this day.

I cried tears of joy.....yes it took me back to how drawing healed me too....when I lost my dad....it was a place of therapy and also a place to connect with things I'm grateful for ....🙏❣️

Most men would have abandoned their wife after such an event, leaving the child with a shared parent 1 at a time. Be proud you stood by her, when most wouldn't have.

Thank you so much. I recently lost one of my service animals and I am myself feeling lost. I needed to hear this. I needed here that my art can be what saves me not just what I hide inside of.

thank you always stay connected..👍🙏

This video made me cry!! 5 years ago I had the worst year of my life, I had constant hospital trips, saved from breast amputation, and after all my nightmare was over, i decided to start over my life, I started painting, I enjoyed it for few years but than I started craving to sell my art, and the whole craziness to sell art became so obsessive that I froze, I forgot how fun it was just creating for the sake of creating and to b in this meditative state... I asked my divine guidance to help me get out of this constant lust and this video came up!!! Thank you so much, I am going to remember my past and just be grateful of the second life I have got 🙏🏻, and just paint ✨✨

what a profound idea. That should be a picture story book!!!! shared down throughout generations.

I won't go into details. But that brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you. I've been having a hard time finding love and comfort from this world for several years now. I am a professional illustrator but I stopped drawing because I ended up having too many unpleasant experiences with drawing as a job. Now I feel I need to find the love for this world again, the enjoyment and I think on drawing but there's so much anxiety when I pick a pen to do so. But your words are giving me a friendly push, a push that tells me I'm going in the right direction. That I should just draw for the sake of it, of seeing the world and not for excellence. So I can feel love again for what's around me and my own life. Thank you, many blessings to you and you loved ones.

“Saw beauty and felt love!” Beautiful indeed. Such an intimate account. Thank you

This is some of the highest quality writing and narration I have ever heard in a video on KZfaq.

what a great story. I go nearly the same way. Got a stroke with 46, now i'59 and in the wheelchair, too, but i brgin to sketch my life uo to now, thank you so much. hugs Gaby

Bravo! Molto Bene! Most excellent. May your healing continue -- and mine as well, for I use my sketchbook for the same purpose.

So many people have been blessed by Patty. Her accident caused you to draw and heal, so many others have experienced the healing from drawing too because you generously shared your story and inspired others to draw and heal. I am one of them:)

I haven’t stopped thinking about this beautiful gift of sharing this so transparently and painfully honest……. about something the world tries to chase away with happy messages and positive cliches. Thank you for letting us cry and feel our own grief and disappointment in a moment of parallel hopefulness and beauty.

“Draw is my super power“. I draw since childhood and was always my safe place, saved my life. Amazing story. Thanks for this video!

💗😊💕I probably watched this video a year or so ago. But it’s so refreshing to watch it again. What a wonderful person you are. Thank you for sharing and keep enjoying your blessed life. We are everything but alone. I’m glad you have found your way to connect and keep loving. LOVE and PEACE to ALL💕😊💗