“I painted with words before I ever picked up a paintbrush. When I was a school teacher, creative writing was my love and gift. I visualized, sketched, and doodled, but never knew I was an artist. Then, my body went south in 2003 with a degenerative disc disease. There were years of surgeries, screws, plates, therapies and meds. Financial and mental struggles. I suffered from depression and substance abuse. I was on fourteen different medicines, including morphine, every day. It was too much. I was laying in bed all the time and turned to books on watercolor for something to do. I kept drawing, painting, and working with imagery because it was stimulating–with colorful little bits and blobs. I quit writing, but a new seed was planted. My therapist told me I was going to have to paint my way out of this.

I started sketching in journals and painting on canvas. Was fascinated with broken lines and faces. People who are struggling get the faces with the broken lines and see the beauty through them. I painted my past into the symbols of my stories, but that changed as I changed. I made up for lost time when I was disabled, and there was so much I couldn’t do.

One day, my husband said, ‘That’s so Ardithian.’ Ardithian. It was like the key that unlocked the door to the land in my head. 

For the last fifteen years, I’ve been painting these characters in the land of Ardithian and writing poems to go with them—that was the original idea for the book. But I wanted to know more of the story beyond the poems, so I wrote a chapter just to see where it went. After the second chapter, I couldn’t stop writing. Last December, I decided to commit to his book or let it go. I put everything on hold to embrace this, including making art that paid the rent. 

Life is short; I don’t want to look back with regrets. I also believe that our stories matter. I attach stories to everything and give myself permission to exist in a world beyond myself.

The Land of Ardithian is a magical world just beyond what we know. It’s filled with colorful characters and ball structures representing the belief that energy exists in the world. We can’t see energy, but it still impacts us. I want children to understand that energy can be a powerful thing from within them but also in the world. The books are fluid: you learn a lesson that might change a truth you thought existed before. Learning changes outcomes in the Land of Ardithian.

Journaling is important to me, so another message for kids is that they need their own journals. What are you curious about? What do you wonder? Draw or write about that in your journal.

Other messages are: ‘don’t suffer imaginary troubles,’ and ‘expect the unexpected’. That’s the lesson life taught me. When I was younger, I never thought that the world would go sideways. I thought it was going to be good–until it wasn’t. Then it was like: wait, what? We have to teach kids that sometimes things don’t work out and how to deal with it when it doesn’t. You get an energy cell out of the blue that suddenly knocks you sideways; you’ve got to adjust.

One of my adjustments was finding space to create. I started painting in my kitchen and back patio but was limited to sketching and drawing in a smaller format. If I had stayed there, the worlds I created would have been much smaller. I had to get brave enough to dream bigger and move to a bigger space. 

The tales from the  Land of Ardithian will be a five-book series. Pondwonderative just came out. Most illustrators don’t write, and most writers don’t illustrate. But I believe children need much more fantastical time spent in their imaginations. I want to be a wayshower for other artists or writers that their stories matter and that they can cross over and do both.

It’s not simply writing a children’s book; it’s world-building. It’s a bigger story than just one experience of one character. You have to take all the different perspectives and angles because every person sees the world differently and has different experiences. Lord have mercy. I can’t do anything simple or predictable.” 

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Come to Stories Matter: A Night with Ardith Goodwin and Lynn Oldshue on Sunday, October 20 at Central Presbyterian Church in Mobile. Camm Lewis is opening with a few songs. I think you will leave recharged with a little more appreciation for the stories all around us and the invisible balls of energy. Tickets are $24–every dime of this goes to the Love All Food Pantry that feeds 750 families a week. This is also the book launch for Our Southern Souls, Vol. II.  The books will only be $15 at the event in appreciation for those coming to Stories Matter. The Souls books will be out at local bookstores next week, or you can order it online. Here is the link to the Stories Matter event and to buy the Souls book.

See Ardith’s show at the Mobile Arts Council