Colors of silence.

A painter and educator, Hildegard Muehlich has been working with children for more than ten years at the Kinderzentrum in Munich, Germany.

The "Kinderzentrum" is a well-known children's hospital where children from all over the world with disabilities and chronic diseases come for treatment. Some of them are unable to move or speak. Their hands are cramped, their bodies limp, and it is hard for them to communicate. They often stay silent.

Hildegard employs the healing power of colors. In playing with colors children find joy and a way to express themselves.

They enter Hildegard's atelier and see all sorts of colors. Soon, she is able to inspire a clenched fist to hold a paintbrush. Even the parents are surprised that their child has opened a hand.

What follows is a miracle. It takes patience and attention. Hildegard persuades the children to touch and feel the colors on their fingers, their palms, and sometimes on their feet and faces. Their senses open up. They become calm. They start to listen and pay attention Then, slowly they begin to play with the colors. The silence is broken.

Through their joyful play with colors they get in touch with their own creativity. They start creating and communicating through the colors. Then it becomes possible for caregivers to take a look at their 'inside.' They open up to communication.

"They make visible the images of their souls," says Hildegard, "Even if their body is ill or disabled, through their art these children find a way to express what they are. Their 'inside' is neither ill nor disabled."

Books about her work with children can be ordered at: www.hildegard-muehlich.de