Art Heals

How Do We Know When a Piece of Art is Finished?

2011-09-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

I was in a sculpture class in high school and our assignment was to make a plaster sculpture that required an armature. An armature is a structure that supports the piece from inside and is never seen once the piece is finished. We were provided with blocks of wood for the bases and various gauges of wire, chicken wire, wire cutters, etc. with which to construct this supporting structure.
One of my classmates, let’s call her Linda Yen, created an armature of a horse that was so lovely the teacher called a halt to the class. Everybody was gathered around (the way I remember it) for a discussion about what to do next. The armature was so beautiful that the question arose as to whether the piece could be called complete at this stage. The instructor asked the philosophical question – one I still use every day -“How do we know when a piece is finished?” What a great question! The teacher was wise enough to let the student decide whether and how to proceed with the assignment. I remember some of the options:
· Leave this one as-is and call it complete.
· Finish the piece as assigned (cover it in plaster bandage and then more plaster). The sub-text to this was that if it loses something, she could attempt to make another wire sculpture.
· Stop now and create another companion armature to cover in plaster.
There were so many possible outcomes. The piece could look even more gorgeous when plastered, but there was no guarantee. What if it looked worse? None of us knew for sure what would happen. What if she were unable to create another equally graceful armature? I remembered the instructor taking a photograph of the armature “just in case.” It turned out the student chose to cover the armature in plaster as originally assigned. It lost its grandeur, appearing heavy and clumsy when it was finished. I remember her attempt to remake a wire armature afterward. It, too, lacked the beauty of the original.
I always took it as a lesson: When something looks really lovely, maybe it’s time to call it complete. Maybe it’s not what you were expecting, but try to step back from the “assignment” (your preconceived notions, your original expectations) to see the piece for what it is. If it is a treasure, treasure it.
I didn’t realize how deeply impacted I was by this learning. Let’s face it. Most of us in high school don’t learn by others’ mistakes – we much prefer to make our own. I know I did. I was truly impressed with Linda Yen’s original sculpture. I was equally disheartened by her loss in finishing the sculpture with plaster in a way that dulled its elegance, and then by her struggle to re-create another fine armature that also fell somewhat short.
Cut 42 years into the future:
Last week my friend Peter started posting digitized slides he rescued from our old high school in the midst of its demolition. In typically wasteful fashion, the venerable old building was being torn down while still full of books, supplies, furniture, art, and, oh yes, a carousel of old slides from the art department. What are the odds Peter would come up with images of the art work made by our cohort in the late 1960s? He did.
This is a photo of my life lesson. This is a slide of Linda Yen's armature from 1969. How do we know when a piece of art is finished? Is it when the teacher says, "Let me get a picture of this now, just in case?"
The larger lesson from this event is encoded here, too. What if your life isn't what you thought it was going to be? What if you have a different life? Is it possible for you to step back and see its elegance, beauty and completeness? Maybe it's not what you expected, and it has turned into something even finer. Imagine that.

Edifice Wrecks

2011-06-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

It’s interesting that I am working on a sketchbook with the theme “Time Travel” while this is happening. My old high school in Detroit is being demolished. I think of Robert Frost’s poem (Good Fences Make Good Neighbors) that has the line in it, “something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” This is not the case for old Cass Tech. The destruction of this building is going slowly and painfully. Some of the beautiful 96 year old stonework is being salvaged, and I wonder for what purpose (can I have a piece?) while most of the building and its contents is being turned into rubble. Lockers, labs, auditorium seats, chandeliers, books, desks, windows, plumbing.

Don’t get me wrong, in the late 1960s my friends and I would have loved for the school to disappear so we could have that imagined freedom that idealistic (or fogged-by-pot-smoking) 16 year olds at that time foresaw. Time travel has certainly been fascinating since then. Here we are now: parents, grandparents, doctors, professors, therapists, artists, lawyers. We are as surprised as anybody that we have turned out so, well, grown-up.

On my first day at Cass I knew that my home room was on the sixth floor. I ran up the stairs as I would normally run up a single flight, and I made it to the fifth floor before my legs and lungs responded, “say, what now?” I remember feeling like I couldn’t move one more step and yet I had an entire floor ahead of me. Two flights with a landing between runs of wide marble stairs. Yikes. What do I do? Go back down and look for an elevator? I knew that was a ridiculous option. There was nothing for it but to push myself up those two final flights.

I suppose now that could be read as a metaphor for the rest of my high school experience. The teachers I didn’t get along with, and the teachers I loved (Mr. Caudillo, History! Mr. Matsui, Biology!) And the lifelong friends I collected there. They all pushed me toward learning and growth I would otherwise not have had. The richness and deeply felt joy I treasure from our shared histories is beyond description.

So, back to Cass Tech. I went there last weekend with my husband and walked around its half-demolished husk. Completely fenced off as it was, my mission was to capture a brick from the old building if I could. The perimeter is wide and kept scrupulously picked clean. Hard hat warnings are posted. I found a shard and picked it up. It held so much energy I got goose bumps up my arm. First of all, the building was black when we attended. In the intervening years it had been sandblasted to its original buff color. If I doubted the blond brick piece in my hand was authentic, its juju put to rest that notion. My eyes got wet, my scalp and hand tingled. WTF?

When I attended school there I could NOT WAIT to get out so that my real life could begin. Remember the human skeleton in the figure drawing classroom? We named her Mrs. Nelson after the teacher (old and shriveled, we thought) that retired that first year. Todd remembers smoking weed on the roof and a concurrent struggle with math. I don’t remember the weed (and I don’t remember the math), but I DO remember Todd. I remember walking downtown after school and hanging out at Hudson’s, mostly in the book department where there was access to a hidden back stairway. Hudson’s is also long ago demolished. I remember going to Wayne State University after school and eating French fries in the cafeteria. I remember skipping school and spending time at the Detroit Institute of Arts instead. I remember when my best friend had to bring her little brother to school with her because the babysitter didn’t show up and her mother was already at work. What a crew I ran with. I remember Ellen flinging her leg over a banister and sliding down a flight. She had on a long skirt and sneakers. Tres chic. We all wore skirts to school then, there was a dress code. I remember the elevator operator who told me, “Your eyes favor Bette Davis.”

Back to last weekend at Cass Tech. I found a breach in the chain link fence and walked through it. I took about thirty paces toward the broken building, its large edifice appearing to recede as I attempted to draw near. At just that moment a police car drove by and I heard my husband speak with the officers. Although I couldn’t hear their words, I scooted back out of the enclosure. Yes, the last two police officers still employed in the city of Detroit found me breaking the law! My luck remains consistent. As it turns out they weren’t threatening to arrest us for trespassing, they just passed on a warning “tell her to be careful.” But I was too distressed to carry on. I left with a shard of brick and these pictures. Cass Tech is still teaching me things: now it’s about time travel.

Multi-Generational Impact of Art Therapy

2011-02-07T12:36:00.001-08:00

I go to the homes of my clients when necessary due to their mobility limitations. I visited a client today, I’ll call him Steve, but that’s not his real name. Steve is recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Steve also has severe symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) secondary to the car accident that caused his TBI. His symptoms are very hard to tease out and separate. They are all tangled like a ball of yarn after a cat attack. Today we talked a little bit about art therapy and we made some art.

Sleep is a challenge for Steve. Sometimes he can't sleep. Sometimes he gets too much sleep. He is on a complicated regimen of medications, each with its own side effects. Sometimes he has vivid and disruptive nightmares. Today Steve worked on a recent dream that had disturbed him. My thought was to help him externalize the dream in order to create a therapeutic distance from it. I showed him how to make an accordion book with four pages. The structure and limitations might really help him contain his distress. Being able to open and, more importantly, being able to close the book gives him some much-needed control. Steve was really forced to compress his dream into a tight space. But he made it happen. Steve worked silently at the table beside me. He was able to tell his story in four pictures, including an introduction and conclusion! He drew images and wrote words with a pencil, and then colored his pictures with markers. He told his story in very concise imagery and language. It was an impressive accomplishment.

When he was done, we talked about the process.

Without prompting, Steve reflected on his changed perspective at the end of the story. In the third picture he was depicted as small as a speck, nearly invisible, a microscopic dot on the paper, overwhelmed by a gigantic mountain seeming to block his path. The very last picture showed him big enough to fill half the page as he changed the dream channel. The image progression showed a remarkable improvement in self perception, and a sense of personal power. Again, this was quite a feat. It likely would have taken multiple sessions to get there without the art’s assistance.

And then Steve thanked me for helping him to “complete something in one hour.” Yeah, that’s important, too. He struggles with distractibility, and it can take him the whole day – or longer sometimes – to finish a simple task.

Later, toward the end of session, Steve told me, “You know, art therapy is affecting multiple generations in my family.” Oh? “Yes. Now when my grandchildren come over they all want to make art with me. They are not interested in TV anymore.”

And he’s told me this before, but somehow today, in these words, it stayed with me differently.

Nice one. Truth is, getting to work with people like him changes my life, too. Thanks, Steve.

ArtHouse Coop Sketchbook Project 2011: Art of Revenge

2011-01-20T08:45:00.001-08:00

I just completed this project. ArtHouse Coop chose at random, the subject "Revenge." I found it puzzling and challenging. It was only afterward that I learned that my true satisfaction comes from successfully making my mark on the future. Within this sketchbook are hidden (and not-so-hidden) symbols of my children. Their success buoys my spirit and is truly the best possible revenge on all who have done me wrong. Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

ArtHouse Coop Sketchbook Project 2011: Art of Revenge

View more presentations from Susan Boyes.

2010-12-20T05:16:00.000-08:00

Underpainting. I'm looking at snow and realize the snow is not white, but rich with color. It reflects sky and it displays shadow. Blue or pink, orange or purple, the snow is only sometimes, intermittently, white. And when it is – the white is blinding! Dazzling!

But it's the shadows and reflections that make the snow so interesting and give it form.

I've been using chalk pastels to lay out an underpainting on Strathmore charcoal paper. I must confess the paper I have is ancient paper. I inherited it from my former husband's grandmother in the early 1980's. It was old then, before she passed it down to me! It might have been purchased in the early 1970's. Yes. Well, now you know something about my weakness for accumulating art supplies. I have lived in six different homes in four different states since acquiring those art supplies from John's grandma. Those supplies have traveled with me, dwindling with use, all the way.

I have a (new!) box of Prismacolor pastels and a new tin of denatured alcohol. Laying down a bold underpainting color for sky and foreground with my Prismacolors I fix it to the paper using denatured alcohol and a bristly paint brush. The denatured alcohol dries quickly, sealing the underpainting so I can get right back to creating the local color without the worry of it getting stirred up and bleeding through.

But you know me. There's more to making art than technique. It wasn't long before I started thinking about the metaphor of underpainting. There's the person we see and there's the underpainting that makes that person so interesting. It's the shadow and reflection that gives meaning to a life. It's what makes us what we are. What is the underpainting in your life?

International Postcard Art Exchange Postcards

2010-11-05T12:23:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

International Postcard Art Exchange Postcards

View more presentations from Susan Boyes.

I am having SO MUCH FUN!

2010-10-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Long time no blog. I've been a busy art therapist and artist.

<-- Here's some of what I've been up to:

I have a new painting on exhibit in Austin TX. This juried exhibition is called “New Directions,” and will be displayed September 16-October 25, 2010. My piece chosen to be included in the exhibit is an abstract acrylic painting titled, “Salt Marsh Dawn.” I can't get there to see the show, but I hope you will be able to. My art can be seen in person at the Dragonfly Gallery at Rosedale, 4007 Marathon Blvd., Austin, TX 78756.

I am proud to announce that the book, Visual Journeys: Art of the 21^st Century, is now published and again, I have art included in it. Compiled by The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media, this is the third SLMM book to showcase my art. For this publication I provided a tea with pen and ink piece titled: “Tea Dream Animals.”

Three upcoming events in southeastern Michigan of note:

October 17^th an Art Therapists meeting in Southfield, MI. Join us for peer supervision and art making from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. Contact me for more information.

October 23^rd, Transformation Paper-Making Workshop at Center for Creative Growth. You should attend! Come to 2311 E. Stadium Ste. 216 from 1-3 PM. Open to the public, cost is $45 at the door.

Happily, my private practice is thriving. There is a new art exhibit including art made by some of my art therapy clients. Exhibit runs October 11 through Nov. 19. “The Art of Recovery” is on display in Ann Arbor, MI, at U of M's Taubman Health Sciences Library, 1135 E. Catherine. On Nov. 4 from 6-8 PM you can meet the artists and stay for a hands-on art therapy experience. It's all free – with free parking after 6 PM in the structure across the street from the library (free parking from 5:30 on Nov. 4 for the event.) Sweet.

I hope I see you soon!

Stirring Things Up

2010-07-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

I got in Big Trouble at the traumatic brain injury rehabilitation center where I work by talking with the Behavior Analyst. I was all excited about Dan Pink's book, “Drive.” I had sent the B.A. a link to information about the book and a cute video about it. He took offense to the very idea that “reinforcers” could be interpreted as “rewards,” or worse, as “carrots and sticks.” "That's insulting," he told me. Since he holds some power in the organization, I felt it necessary to backpedal and cover myself by suggesting that perhaps I misunderstand his program, because that's what reinforcers (as implemented among our clientele) look like to me.

Interestingly, he seems to be avoiding me ever since. Perhaps he is motivated to do so for some reason.

East Coast Road Trip

2010-07-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

On my way to New York tomorrow after work. If you want to see me (in Long Island, Redding, CT, or Brooklyn) call me. I want to see you, too.

time flies

2010-06-16T17:19:00.001-07:00

Time flies. It gets away from me. I went to Spokane (well, Cheney,) WA last month to visit my daughter. It was wonderful to see her and her wife and my granddog again. It's impossible to express how much I miss my daughter. She is beautiful and smart and has a big big heart and crazy humor. She works hard and loves deeply. She is creative and quick, with quirky interests (blacksmithing, soil biology) and a memory like a steel trap. She is a wonderful daughter and a wonderful partner to her sweetheart. The world is better for having Elizabeth in it.

It's hard to fathom that it's already more than a month since I was there and I'm just getting back to the blog. Since returning I have been busy with my private practice, my part time gig, and I'm back to making art and writing again. I have a new phone, a new

office with a studio, a garden replete with all the smells, sounds, colors, and textures of summer. ahhhh

The lavender is humming with bees again like a kazoo band, the poppies and the peonies have already faded, delphiniums, campanula, and coreopsis are all abloom. The tomatoes have flowered and begun to set fruit, and the basil is taking hold (better late than never).

Next up: a road trip in July to visit the East Coast branch of our extended family in and around New York. I am so glad to have that to look forward to. As fast as time is moving, it won't be long at all until then. I will see you there.

What is Art Therapy and Why is it Important to Work With an Art Therapist?

2010-05-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

What I know about art:
art is fun
art can be messy
art surprises
art tells a story
art can keep a secret
art is curious
art is poignant
art saves lives

What is Art Therapy and why is it important to work with an Art Therapist?
Art Therapy is making art with a person who is educated about how art and your psyche relate. Working with a real Art Therapist (there is a master’s degree and nationally recognized credential for this field!) makes a difference. Because art making is so powerfully transformative, huge shifts can come very quickly. It is important to know how to contain big feelings as they come up. Some of us need containment and some of us are so numbed out and our feelings are so shut down that we need help to become MORE expressive. You might not be aware that some art materials could be triggering to those of us that are carrying scary memories.

Q. What art skills are necessary for art therapy?
A. The simple answer is none. Art therapy requires no artistic ability. The art therapist offers guidance and support and the opportunity to explore issues of concern using simple art materials. Art can be used to help you express your feelings in a safe way.

Q. If I don’t even know what I’m feeling, how can art help me?
A. Some art materials can give you more energy and some can calm you. A good Art Therapist will know what materials and interventions are appropriate for you as you work together.

Q. What kinds of results can I expect from Art Therapy?
A. With art therapy you might find dreams changing. You might become more aware of your surroundings during the day. You might find your relationship with yourself and with your past, with the important people in your life, is changing. This is noteworthy: as you gain more control in your art you may find you gain more control in your life, too.

My personal philosophy about art making is this: I believe that we are made of the same creative stuff that created the universe. The energy of creation is in every molecule of us. Therefore, when you stimulate creativity in one area of your life (by making art, dancing, writing a poem, knitting, etc.) other parts of your creativity are also stimulated. When we do something creative we begin to heal in thousands of unseen ways because we are tapping into that original creative source from which we are made.
There is much more information about Art Therapy out there. Please visit my website.

My name is Susan Boyes, and my practice is called Center for Creative Growth.
I am a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist working in Ann Arbor, MI.
I have a fan page on Facebook that will help you to keep current on what's new in Art Therapy, globally and locally.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about art therapy.

As I Suspected

2010-04-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Having done an exhaustive search of my emails with the book editor it is clear that I never signed over my rights to ownership of my research. My attorney will happily draft a letter clarifying my ownership of my original work and agreeing to license the publisher non-exclusive use of it in perpetuity. But it appears to be mine to do with as I wish. [insert raspberries here]

WTF?

2010-04-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

I just removed my research, formerly available, from this blog and from my website. I was not asked to do so by anybody, but I chose to do so as a courtesy to the person compiling a book that will include it. Although I had asked for copyright clarification and received no response (other than a vague, someone will get back to you kind of answer), I found myself confronted today with the threat of "legal sanction" and a note that offering my research to the public for sale "is not permitted." Seems like I could have been notified sooner, like when I asked about it 6 weeks ago. So there you go. If you want my research you will have to wait for the book to come out and buy it from someone else. I'll let you know when that is. Or call me and we'll talk.

Buy Art

2009-12-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Buy Art here today.

Mindfulness when Life Sucks

2009-12-04T08:08:00.001-08:00

Mindfulness.

I’m averse to it when life sucks. I can’t help but ask myself, “why should I pay more attention to THIS?” So here’s my thinking. Turn it upside down. Look at it (whatever “it” is) in another way; from a different angle. I recently rediscovered the upside down drawing technique when working across the table from some of my clients. When drawing from another image, I’ve found it easier to create a better rendition of the target image if I do it upside down. No, I don’t stand on my head. I spin the original picture upside down.

When I look at a portrait right side up, my mind categorizes “hand, eyes, nose, shadow, chin, hair,” and as I proceed to draw these parts the schemas of these ideas take over. What I already "know" interferes with what I am trying to learn. I find the images I draw turn out to be REPRESENTATIONS of these pre-learned concepts rather than true renderings of what my eyes reveal before me.

I learned this upside down technique years ago from the books Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and Drawing on the Artist Within by Dr. Betty Edwards.

I don’t know for sure how to translate this drawing method of turning the book upside down to the broader concept of “looking at life from a different angle.” But I’m working on it.

In the meantime I suspect there is some psychic crossover that aids me, a spiritual gain perhaps, from the tangible, physical act of art making from objects turned on their heads.

Why I Don't Give to Salvation Army

2009-11-21T03:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just say no to something without explanation. That’s an assertive stance. You don’t have to explain or defend your choices. You can decline and be polite at the same time. Today I am explaining a decision to say no. I don’t donate to Salvation Army. I see those bell ringers and I pass right by. I don’t let anybody with me drop a coin in their drums, either. I don’t shop at Salvation Army stores, and I tell my friends not to donate or shop there. Here’s why.

A zillion years ago when I was a very young child, we’re talking in the late 50s or early 60s, my family needed financial help. Serious financial help. We needed food, clothes and money to pay for heat. One day my mother worked up her courage and beat down her shame and despair enough to ask for assistance. She dressed in her best clothes, walked to the bus stop (in my memory I can still see and hear her clomping down the street in those high heels). Some hours later she returned, defeated, and with an angry, frantic, trapped look in her eyes.

My mother had gone to Salvation Army to ask for help and was refused. I don’t know the specifics of her encounter because I wasn’t there and I was just a child. I do know that she cried when she got home. She blamed racism “Why should they help a well-dressed white woman?” and she blamed her own “stupidity” for getting dressed up to make her case for need. But she was trying to make a good impression and appear worthy of help. She wore her best holiday dress and, as always, she “put on her face.” Later she understood her attempts to impress were misguided. She might have garnered more sympathy / support had she arrived without makeup and combed hair. She "didn’t look poor enough," she surmised afterward. I wonder whether she also provided the supporting documentation that was likely required. She would have needed evidence of food stamps or unemployment checks, I suppose, even then. We had those things, but whether she brought them along I don’t know.

In any event, we didn’t get help from Salvation Army. My mother carried a grudge against them for the rest of her long life. In her honor (and in mine) I continue to do so. I don’t give to and I don’t patronize Salvation Army because they didn’t help my family when we really needed it. Not once. Not with food, clothing, holiday gifts, nothing.

I won’t even go into how sick I got eating spoiled trayfe baloney. My mother fed it to her youngest two children as a cost saving measure. I was so hungry I ate it (fast!) even though it was rank. It all came back up, “return to sender.”

We never did that again, either.

I suggest you find other places to donate generously to those in need. In memory of my mother.

The Doing of Art

2009-11-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

I still am not happy about the colder weather and now that we are back on standard time, the dark comes so early. It can be quite disheartening. I miss the sunshine and long days terribly. All I can do is keep doing what I’m doing. I work, I make art, I write, talk with friends, and try to get through the dark cold time of the year as best I can (I know, we are only just beginning).

Realizing the importance of visual expression for creative and mental health, I make time to produce and enjoy personal art despite the short days, my busy schedule and uncertain mood. I recommend the same for all my readers. Art doesn’t have to be complicated (something I tend to forget). The important thing is the doing of it.

I am pleased to announce my art is now available for purchase here: http://www.americanframe.com/search.aspx?prodtype=Art&keyword=boyes

Northern Michigan October 2009

2009-10-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Grand Traverse Bay

Jacques Torres, Traverse City

Tangled Roots, Upper Peninsula near Tahquamenon Falls

Tahquamenon Falls

Tahquamenon Falls, second in power to Niagara

2009-09-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

I’m trying not to be unhappy about summer being over. I’m not succeeding. With my resources feeling full and empty at the same time, I keep making art. It’s all I know how to do to fight the blues. My current best art fun is on polyvore.com and also on watercolor paper. I’m flinging color and pattern everywhere. Then I cut out portions that suit me as stand-alone pieces, or at the very least, for use as note cards…
Not that I ever write on actual-physical-touch-and-hold-note-cards much anymore.
I’m coming around to accepting the harsh reality of seasonal change. I suspect it’s more about existential angst than fall. The seasons of the year are a metaphor for my personal seasons. Or maybe it’s about technology supplanting touch-and-hold art products.
I don’t like it. Not one bit.
So I do not go softly. No. I go grumblingly, making sure everyone around me knows my feelings about it. Complaining about the weather is a time-honored tradition in Michigan. If not for complaining, well, what else can we do? I know, I know, I know. We can move. I’ve heard that before. I’ve DONE that before. I lived away from Michigan more than 36 years. Most of that time was in New Mexico. I will say this for Albuquerque – the weather is not so bad.
When I lived in Albuquerque, I went to New Moon drumming circles every month – for something like three years – at the studio of my friend and colleague Judith Roderick. She was a batik artist making silk scarves. She’d throw salt on the wet dye. I discovered I can do that with watercolor on paper, too. It adds layers of interest as the color pulls and pools on contact with the salt. Ahhh, chemistry. But I digress.
The New Moon in October this year is on the 18th. What’s special about this? I am offering a workshop at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore here in Ann Arbor on that day about the Mandala. We’re going to make art as a group. The only thing better than making art is making art in the company of others. It enriches the experience. Brings energy. Ideas. Comfort. Strength. Mystery. Support. Courage. It’s a wonderful thing.

I hope you will join us. 1-3 PM at Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main Street in Ann Arbor.
You can learn more about the workshop here: October Workshop

2009-08-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

View 'Art Heals' on Polyvore

Glorious Summer

2009-07-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been a really long time since I wrote here. It’s a glorious summer in Ann Arbor – in every possible way. So that’s my best excuse. I’m having so much fun engaged in the summer world I have been away from the keyboard. Here are 9 reasons I love it here:
Number one – the students are gone. The streets are quieter. There are fewer dangerously inattentive texting pedestrians stepping off the curb in front of me as I drive through town en route to work. Less evidence of last night’s beer pong on the front porches. But I digress.
Number two – the weather is clear and bright and not too hot. It rains only at night, just like in Camelot.
Number three – the farmer’s market brings seasonal local produce that stuns the eyes, entertains the nose, treats the taste buds, and warms the heart and soul.
Number four – most of my private clients have moved away or are otherwise on hiatus and I have time for the hammock, a book, and the garden.
Number five – the kazoo band is tuning up in the lavender patch. The bees are so busy the bush itself is a-hummin.
Number six – our son from Hawaii is planning his visit to the mainland in a few weeks and just maybe we can get the other kids to coordinate a strategic assault on the ‘rents all at once. I would love to have the whole crew here even if it’s only for a few days.
Number seven - the butterfly bush has, um, butterflies in it.
Number eight – every possible heirloom tomato on the planet is producing pretty and unusual fruit in the garden plot shared between our neighbor, Anne, and ourselves.
Number nine – the bird feeder has so much activity it looks like a full-length Disney cartoon movie. One of the old ones, like Snow White or Cinderella. The birds are all decked out in bright colors, the cheeky chipmunks and bold squirrels and skittish rabbits scamper about, offset by the occasional skulking cat or lucky dog.

So there you have it. Life is a treat right now in high summer in Ann Arbor. I wouldn’t change a thing.

new website look

2009-06-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to encourage you to visit my website. I worked with IT genius (and husband extraordinaire) Matt Cantillon today to change the look and feel of my website. Please go give it a visit. If you click here and get the old site, hit the "refresh" or "reload" at the top of your browser. http://www.centerforcreativegrowth.com

Patterns

2009-05-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

I see patterns everywhere I look. It’s a metaphor, I’m sure, for the aging process. As I understand the aging brain, “wisdom” is really the improved function of pattern recognition. We seem wiser because we see patterns so quickly. We recognize patterns so quickly because we have seen them many times before. It comes from having been around the block, you might say, neurologically. Yes, the novelty has worn off, and wow, I got that fast, didn’t I?

I went to New York last weekend. I don’t know why it takes me a whole year to get there for a weekend, but it sometimes does. In any case, I also have a new camera. Nice conjunction of events. Trip to New York AND a new camera to take along with me. I saw a lot of people while I was there, my son and his wife, whom I adore and can’t ever get enough of. And our niece and our nephew and their respective families and friends of our son, and neighbors, people on the subway and on the street. The characters are many and a delight for the eye. But all my camera (and I) could see were patterns. Patterns in the brickwork, in the manhole covers, on fences, the backs of chairs, tree trunks, flowers, the limbs of trees or people. Carved in stone, cast in bronze, the angles of people standing on line at the shake shack, a stack of moving dollies, the arches over windows, a line of water towers in Brooklyn, the shadows of a staircase, an ornate ceiling. Here are a few.

How We Decide

2009-04-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished yet another incredible neuroscience book, this one is How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. It’s easily readable and I highly recommend it.
In case you think you make all your decisions logically and rationally, I’ve got news for you. Without input from your emotional circuitry you’d never make a single one. It turns out there’s a real need for the emotional parts of our mind to contribute valuable information when we have decisions to make, both big and small.
If you’ve ever wondered why you get confused when there is too much information (think new car purchase) this book will help you understand.
Let’s face it, there are some things you don’t have to think about. You have practiced certain activities a long time. If you’re a musician, airline pilot, or an athlete, certain decisions are made seamlessly and seemingly without any thought at all. In fact, when you start to think, really think about the performance of your specialty, it can go completely into the weeds.
Trust me, there are also times it is imperative that you apply rational thought to your choice-making. You need to know which occasions call for a cool rational response and when to blend your logic with information from your non-verbal mind. This book takes time to explain which decisions call for which type of input. And why they are both of critical importance.
I’m taking it a step further. As an art therapist, I think making art (as a non-verbal method of problem-solving) and reviewing it with a knowledgeable professional (adding words to help clarify your imagery) can help you make important decisions. What a supportive way to work through complex issues.

A Healthy Dose of Gratitude Can Improve Quality of Life

2009-03-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

By DRS. KAY JUDGE AND MAXINE BARISH-WREDEN

McClatchy Newspapers

Research suggests that the regular cultivation of gratitude and appreciation has multiple psychological and physical benefits. Thankful people typically boast better overall health, fewer physical symptoms, higher income, more energy, larger social networks and stronger marriages. They also exercise more. They fall asleep more easily at night. They sleep longer and more soundly, and they wake up more refreshed.

The practice of gratitude may increase the levels of immunoglobulin A in your throat and nose, increasing your ability to resist viral infections. Gratitude practices seem to reduce stress hormone levels in the body. People who cultivate gratitude, optimism and happiness live longer than grumpy pessimists. Even curmudgeons can become beacons of optimism.

Research has shown that only about 50 percent of our mood is determined by our genetics. The rest is largely determined by what we choose to focus on and cultivate. This focus takes commitment and practice.

Dr. Robert Emmons, a psychology researcher at University of California-Davis and one of the leading gratitude researchers in the country, suggests a number of practices that, if done faithfully, will have you grateful in no time:

Keep a daily gratitude journal in which you make note of all the good things and the gifts that have come your way that day.
Promise yourself to practice gratitude regularly.
Focus on the good things that others have done for you. This makes us realize how interdependent we are and makes us realize that we are loved.
Learn to develop a language of gratitude rather than a language of complaint. Ask your friends and family to help you. It's often hard to see for ourselves how much we're complaining.
Use your senses to come into the present and appreciate the small gifts in the moment -the smile of a child, the smell of your first cup of coffee in the morning, the beauty of a sunset.
Take grateful actions. Smile, perform random acts of kindness, help a stranger.

We suspect that if most people engaged in these practices on a regular basis, the world would be a much happier and healthier place. And, people might need doctors like us a lot less frequently, and that's good medicine.

For more on this fascinating subject, pick up Emmons' latest book, "Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier" (Houghton-Mifflin, $25, 256 pages).

Operators are Standing By Call Now!

2009-03-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I recently received a marketing newsletter that informed me the best way to get people to open my newsletter is to have a subject line that indicates a time-limited offer. I thought "One Week Only!" and then realized art therapy is not really time limited. Is there really such a rush to come in for art therapy as that?

In another informative "here's how you do it" article I read that the way to wealth is to offer something online that people coming to my site can immediately purchase and download. What a genius of an idea! Instant gratification!

Believe me, I am trying to come up with just the right thing. I'm thinking of parenting advice. After all, I am an expert, having brought three children safely to productive adulthood. But honestly, I am just like a million other mothers in that way. My children are brilliant and hard working mostly because of how they came into the world. They are a result of a million experiences of which I was not an integral part. I doubt my parenting advice and methods will teach anything new. Besides, I learned most of it after they were grown up and I returned to school. It's amazing I raised such successful kids prior to my expensive education.

No, I don't want to write a book. It's a lot of work. I don't even want to write a pamphlet or an article.

Oh, then I had a wonderful inspiration. I will publish a sketchbook. That you can purchase and download from my website! Yes, a book of blank pages is just the thing! (And if you want a larger sketchbook, please load your printing tray with "14 x 11" paper.)

I wonder how much it should cost...

"Art Time"

2009-03-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between art education and art therapy? Where does one stop and the other begin? My own experience as a potter frequently gives me the experience of being out-of-time, especially while I work on the potter's wheel. In one of the art therapy discussion groups I belong to the following conversation thread has developed. One contributor to the conversation suggests that in regard to a figure drawing class:
As things progress, if the teacher has done her job, then you enter "art time" where time seems to disappear, the model is now an object of undulating curves, infinite shading, the meeting of light and dark contrasts all of which have to be translated into the restraints of charcoal on paper. It is hardly an all right brain thing, but more a collaboration of both hemispheres of the brain in conjunction with higher and lower brain functions.

I recognize that state of being~doing, which I find is very difficult for many to describe. In that state, where Jungian Dr. Marion Woodman says, "The painting paints the painter," we seem to leave "ordinary time" which the Greeks called "chronos" and enter the time state of "kairos" which is often called sacred time, by those same Greeks... It may be a time-less state, where transformation is possible, for the strictures of reality may be loosened, by the setting aside of the reality-based ego, which for some of our patients has been formed as a limited and restrictive critical ego function.

Now I ask my readers: what is your experience of "losing time" while engaged in art (or music) making?

Cabin Fever

2009-03-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

What an interesting time of year. While still cold and snowy in much of the country with cloudy, gray skies, the days are growing longer and brighter. Among days of bitter wind and frigid temperatures, we can experience random days of sunlight and even warmth that remind us spring is just around the corner.
Either we accept and embrace this chilly time and wile away the hours sipping hot cocoa, reading or watching movies while enjoying a respite from outdoor responsibilities like mowing the grass and pulling weeds. Or...we grow anxious.
It is subtle at first. Then, the sensation of being confined leads to pacing and a lack of focus. Minutes seem like hours, and we spend more of them peering through slits in curtains drawn to keep the cold at bay. We hope for a glimpse of green grass or crocus buds peaking through the dingy snow.
Diagnosis? Cabin fever. Treatment? Friends and activities.
Occupy your head and hands with an exciting new project in a social setting. Make the most of this time "trapped" indoors by trying a new craft. Take a class, join a group or attend a social craft event at a store, café or friend’s house.
Even a few hours spent creatively with loved ones can bring a little sunshine into your day and chase away winter blahs.
With thanks to all the inspirational art therapists out there.

The Mini Saga

2009-02-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

I learned a wonderful new art form from the book by Daniel Pink, "A Whole New Mind." It's called the “Mini Saga.” The mini saga consists of 50 words - no more, no less, - that tell a story from start to finish. Here’s one I wrote recently.

And Forever
By ones and twos they grow up and move away. That’s the way of children. They take your heart and run with it. We think there’s all the time in the world, but it isn’t so. From now on it’s only visits. Brief, poignant, and infrequent. I miss them terribly.

Solstice and Hope

2008-12-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

I’m watching the snow outside through the window from inside on the couch. I’m spending the day in my bathrobe as I recover from a virus. It happens to be Friday, my day off, and it’s snowing like crazy here. If I felt better I might bundle up and go outside to enjoy the experience. “Enjoy” is the wrong word. I don’t like being cold. It brings up a lot of sad feelings from the past. Winter in general is a hard time for me with its darkness.
2 Days Later… I’m starting to think about hope. My health has returned and some energy came with it. The sun is peeking through the clouds and reflecting brightly off the snow left behind by the past week’s weather. Still friggin cold out there, but there are moments of beauty – especially if you are out of the wind.
It gives me hope. I recently had the pleasure of attending a speaking engagement by Evan Handler. You may remember him as the bald, Jewish love interest of Miranda in the series, “Sex in the City.” Turns out he is a cancer survivor and also a fine author as well. (See: “Time on Fire" and “It’s Only Temporary”). He was on a book tour and came to Ann Arbor as part of it. I have read his first book and I’m on the waiting list for the second one from the library.
One of the notions I came away with from his talk was this: There is no such thing as false hope. Mr. Handler claims that false hope is an oxymoron. Handler was frequently being admonished by his doctors against false hope. He had a type of leukemia that at the time had a 90% fatality rate. Mr. Handler understood this to mean that a full 10% of people with his disease would be cured! In his description of the experience it seemed as if the doctors were trying to protect their own feelings, rather than those of their patients. The doctors had lost many patients. Evan Handler’s doctors expected their patients to die. It was hard for them to retain hope for individual patients in their care.

I can’t solve the mortgage crisis alone or rescue the auto companies in Detroit – though my tax dollars will be earmarked to this end for the foreseeable future. But I hope all will be well in the financial world. I hope the stock market stabilizes and grows again. I hope our work continues to joyfully sustain us. I hope our health stays solid.
Hope is defined by Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (mine from high school) as “desire with the expectation of fulfillment.”
My hope looks like this: We will have sunny days again. The days will get longer from now till late June. At the solstice I am reminded that natural light really does affect my mood. I need and want more of it. Hope is back with tilted axis of the earth in its orbit.

World Class

2008-12-14T19:28:00.001-08:00

I am lucky enough to live near a city with a world class art museum. The Detroit Institute of Arts. I’ve been going to the DIA since I was a baby. It was a place my mother loved to visit and she would sometimes take me. My mother was in high school when Diego Rivera was painting his famous “Industry” murals in the DIA courtyard. She watched him at work on the scaffolding after school.

The DIA became a second home to me. I hung out there a lot as an adolescent. I was an art student at Cass Tech, and the Art Institute enriched my studies as much as it comforted me with its familiar sights, sounds, smells, lights, and shadows. Returning to the DIA now comforts me just as much.

My favorite things today included a wonderful black and white photograph of Andy Warhol visiting Detroit. I saw photos by Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier-Bresson. There is currently a special exhibition, “From Monet to Dali,” from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Included were some truly luminous Monet paintings. Reproductions don’t do justice to the light captured by Monet. I could hear the sounds and feel the air and smell the summer captured in his paintings. They felt alive to me. Although I was surrounded by people, even jostled at times, it felt like I was the only one there. Everything fell away around me when I stood before these thrilling works.

It was a wonderful day. I love visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Whole Mind

2008-12-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

From another book about the brain, “A Whole New Mind,” by Daniel H. Pink, I have culled the following: Roger W. Sperry (Cal Tech professor, Nobel Prize winner in medicine) reshaped our understanding of our brains. In the 1950s Sperry studied patients that had had surgery separating their brain hemispheres (as a treatment for epilepsy). He discovered that the established hemispheric dominance/subordinance theory of the brain was flawed. Yes, our brains are separated into two halves. But as he put it, “The so-called subordinate or minor hemisphere, which we had formerly supposed to be illiterate and mentally retarded and thought by some authorities to not be even conscious, was found to be in fact the superior cerebral member when it came to performing certain kinds of mental tasks.” In other words, the right wasn’t inferior to the left. It was just different. “There appear to be two modes of thinking,” Sperry wrote, “represented rather separately in the left and right hemispheres, respectively.”

The left hemisphere reasons sequentially, excels at analysis, and handles words. The right hemisphere reasons holistically, recognizes patterns, and interprets emotions and nonverbal expressions. Human beings are literally of two minds.
*We need both / ALL / parts of the brain to function at our best.*

Contrary to some 1980's beliefs about right brain - left brain functioning, high levels of creativity require an integration of right and left hemispheric functioning which, with repeated exercise, results in an increase of the micro neural pathways in the corpus callosum. If you think about that for a moment, then you can clearly see the benefits of an art centered approach to therapy.
I’m just sayin…

Neuroplasticity - The Brain Changes!

2008-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

I’m spending more time reading about neuroplasticity. I am just wrapping up “The Brain that Changes Itself,” by Norman Doidge, M.D. and Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D.’s book, “The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog.” Both of these doctors’ books report new knowledge of the brain’s insults and its astonishing ability to recover. These are cutting edge discoveries.

Many of us suffer losses and trauma in our lives. Some are quite severe. Our brains, our neural networks, record these events. Physical changes take place in the brain as we learn. Neurons grow and connect. We make sense of our traumas however we can. Over time our protections, understanding, behaviors, and experiences lay down even more neuronal paths. Things change. Not always for the better. Sometimes we become sensitized. We may learn unhealthy habits (addictions) to help us cope with painful memories. Some of us have brain systems that become "stuck" – such as in anxiety disorders or other OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders) – where we are compelled to organize, straighten, or check incessantly. There is help available. Although a neural connection can’t be erased, new learning can take place that can work around the existing impairment. Sometimes we need help to create new learning to help us recover.

Art is uniquely suited to addressing areas of entrenched pain or dysfunction. At times art making may work similarly to free association in psychoanalysis. You may start by drawing a recurring dream and begin to describe the picture and discover more about what your dream is telling you. Art can be a safe way of processing preverbal trauma. Maybe your image is just color, line and shape. Maybe it’s a lump of clay that represents how Depression has you feeling cold and lifeless. Maybe it’s a decorative box that holds your secrets. Or a book you bind together yourself with pages you can open and close, show or keep private.

The metaphors and meanings are as individual as you are. As you spend time with your art making you will be engaging in new learning. This is a good, good thing.

Rag Doll and Professional Identity

2008-11-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

Just back from the AATA Conference. That’s the American Art Therapy Association’s annual gathering to learn and share. This year it was in Cleveland. It’s expensive financially, in time, and trouble. It’s inconvenient, always coming just before Thanksgiving. It’s an enormous hassle. This year it was a bit easier because we could drive. And I learned so much. Okay, I know, a rag doll doesn’t seem like much. But it’s not just that I learned how to make a rag doll. This doll is practically a fetish, a voodoo creation. It is inspirited, I might say. Inspiration. Breathe in.
The doll was made with INTENTION. [The intention has to do with my professional identity.] Okay, so how does a rag doll evoke or invoke identity? Oh I don’t know HOW, but it does. I find myself thinking about my professional identity as I wonder about the color choices. They’re not colors I normally like. They are plain. They clash. I wonder about the sparkly bits. I had “sparkle envy” at the table where I worked and the person across from me generously gave me a piece of her sparkly fabric. I quickly placed a seashell on her waistband as I raced to finish the piece and remembered wampum as I did. Shell was used for money, called wampum, by some Native American tribes in New England. I will add the face later. Or maybe I won’t.
Here is a craft (you should have seen the materials flying!) that can make a huge mess. I was anxious as I tried to figure out how to assemble the doll. I have never been a fan of dolls and couldn’t understand why I signed up for this workshop – and paid extra – to learn how to make it. I felt frustration. I didn’t get it about how to connect the figure to my professional identity or anything else.
Yet, now that it is done it carries a quiet energy. It embodies competence, knowledge that I have my sparkly bits, regardless of how much it may show to others, and my value is firmly fixed. I’m wild about my doll.

Students' Choices

2008-11-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

I heard something on the radio about students gathering around the University of Michigan campus on the night following the presidential election. You’ve got to hear this. http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1408593&sectionID=17
After I heard this bit on the radio today I started thinking about what we all were doing when we were college age. “We” being my cohort that came of age in the late 60’s and early 70’s. But really, we were so appalled by what was happening in Washington that we dropped out. Rather than fight the establishment we just quit. For one thing, it was the easy road. We thought that living an alternative lifestyle would revolutionize the future by example. Oh boy, were we ever wrong. For myself, it never occurred to me that actually JOINING the establishment might make the country a better, safer place. Those in power were, after all, corrupt and mean spirited. Governing was dirty work. I never could understand that old Byrds song, “I Wanna Grow Up to be a Politician.” Dude, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to be.
But my point is that because so many of us dropped out and did not participate in what seemed like a rigged race and a corrupt system, we allowed the vacuum to develop at the top. Nature abhors a vacuum, but lunatics apparently love it. They jumped right in and hijacked reason and integrity. The bad news continued until this day.
I was so cynical and hurt from all the years of disappointment in our elected officials (many of them, not all of them) that I dared not even get my hopes up for victory this year. And yet I am so relieved and happy about the election. I feel like that frozen, frightened place inside can soften and reawaken.
Obama referred to himself as a “mutt” today (in reference to the future White House puppy) and it got me thinking, too. I believe Barack Obama’s very existence is about bringing disparate things into a cohesive whole.

Right Now

2008-11-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

I’m watching the sky go gold as the sun slips just out of sight. What a pretty day this one is. I know it will be dark, rainy and colder tomorrow. I know. I know. How am I ever going to get through the dark time of year? When it’s dark I don’t want to go out. I would rather lock myself in my room and read under the blanket. I lean strongly toward hibernation. But I digress. Today is glorious. Clear and warm (still nearly 70 on Nov. 6!) I find the leaves stunning. They glow as if they are lit from within. In another couple of weeks they will all be on the ground, but now they remain half suspended, tumbling red, gold, amber, purple flecks through the blue air. I could be in a twisting kaleidoscope.

Ann Arbor does a cool thing. The city comes and collects leaves for compost. You don’t even have to bag them. Just rake them into the street and twice in the fall the trucks comes by. A bulldozer pushes the leaves into a great pile and another truck collects them, followed by a street sweeper. Whatever I don’t use for my own compost piles (I have 2 going, plus gardens to enrich), and whatever has not been mulched with the lawnmower to feed the grass, gets raked into the street. It’s a wonderful event. Next spring we can buy finished compost for our gardens, either by the bushel or truckload.

Right now the sunset I’m watching is viewed through the lace skeleton of the bare trees across the street to the south. The tree outside the west window is still half full. Stopping to write about it has caused me to notice both trees more clearly. Drawing or painting it will anchor the moment in even better. It’s about mindfulness. Noticing that today is gorgeous even though tomorrow is predicted to be cold and rainy.
Let us celebrate our moment of joy. We have a new president-elect! And let us not fear the future. Regardless of the predicted hard times ahead, it’s beautiful now.

Stealth Art

2008-10-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

So here’s what we were talking about earlier today. Living within your means. You know, not buying things you don’t have to have. Small house. One small car to share. Enough, but not extra. Can we live like that? What about the occasional treat? And what about art and music? How life sustaining is art? How critical is it to make art? Where is art time on the “gotta have it” scale? I think I probably talk about art more than I actually do it. I always like to do art, but I don’t do it as much as I used to do. I used to spend maybe 10-15 hours a week in the pottery studio. Maybe even more. How come I don’t do that anymore? I can’t come up with a good reason. I remember hearing an addictions counselor explain one time that we don’t have to make up rules for things that aren’t a problem. We don’t, for example, say, “I’ll only have one glass of milk today.” The way we might say “I’ll only have one glass of wine.” Usually drinking milk isn’t a problem and we don’t need to set artificial rules about milk intake. I keep trying to talk myself into going to the art studio and finding reasons I can’t go and then feeling bad about not working on clay art. Sometimes I have to sneak art in under my own radar. I call it making stealth art. I can do it casually, on my lap. It can be knitting. It can be teabag imprints on paper. Later on I can go back over the tea art and doodle-outline shapes that present themselves in the dried tea blot stains. The ultimate teabag Rorschach. Yes! Stealth art. Wow. Looka that. Looks like Shamanic Power Animals to me.

Hallucinometer

2008-10-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

Blogalicious. I’ve been trying to get all experty and technical and then I threw it all away. You know how I keep saying, “don’t forget to have fun?” I was forgetting to have fun. Thank you to all my lunatic friends for reminding me to take myself less seriously. So here’s a picture of part of my recent project. It’s an invention just begging to be made real.
THE HALLUCINOMETER
Here’s how it works – each person wears an aluminum foil hat (well, yes) and each wears special goggles. There are transmitters and receivers and through these the participants can experience each others’ hallucinations – audio, visual, olfactory, kinesthetic. It’s a bonanza of sensory input! Imaginary? YOU make the call.

Travel and Mindfulness

2008-10-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

We just took a trip across the country to visit our daughter. She’s our only girl, and she lives far away and it’s a long time between visits. I loved being there with her and I miss her during the long dry spells apart. Whenever I travel I find that new experiences have a way of grabbing my senses. I focus more on each moment. That’s what art is about. Mindfulness. You don’t have to travel to practice mindfulness. Stop and take it all in. Breathe. All mindfulness requires is to give up the fixed ways we have learned to look at our world. Observe your thoughts without being critical. Examine a leaf in fall color. Draw a picture. Or pick up a camera and record the moment.

The first thing I did when we got home was go to the dentist. Nothing else is quite as riveting as being in the dentist’s chair. Oh yes, it gets my attention.

What is Art Therapy and Why is it Important to Work with an Art Therapist?

2008-10-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

What I know about art:
art is fun
art can be messy
art surprises
art tells a story
art can keep a secret
art is curious
art is poignant
art saves lives

What is Art Therapy and why is it important to work with an Art Therapist?

Art Therapy is making art with a person who is educated about how art and your psyche relate. Working with a real Art Therapist (there is a master’s degree and nationally recognized credential for this field!) makes a difference. Because art making is so powerfully transformative huge shifts can come very quickly. It is important to know how to contain big feelings as they come up. Some of us need containment and some of us are so numbed out and our feelings are so shut down that we need help to become MORE expressive. You might not be aware that some materials could be triggering to those of us that are carrying scary memories.

Q. If I don’t even know what I’m feeling, how can art help me?
A. Some materials can stimulate your creative juices and bring up your energy. With art therapy you might find dreams changing. You might become more aware of your surroundings. You might find your relationship with yourself and your past is changing. As you gain more control in your art you may find you gain more control in your life, too. A good Art Therapist will know what materials and interventions are appropriate for you as you work together.

My personal philosophy about art making is this: I believe that we are made of the same creative stuff that created the universe. The energy of creation is in every molecule of us. Therefore, when you stimulate creativity in one area of your life (by making art, dancing, writing a poem, knitting, etc.) other parts of your creativity are also stimulated. When we do something creative we begin to heal in thousands of unseen ways because we are tapping into that original creative source from which we are made.
There is much more information about Art Therapy out there. Please visit my website, http://www.centerforcreativegrowth.com/.

The above blog was taken in part from an original post by Susan Boyes January 3, 2008 on http://www.survivormanual.blogspot.com/

I Love Making Art

2008-09-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Center for Creative Growth is starting a blog. Welcome to new readers joining us for the first time.

I love making art. Whether I am coloring alongside a client, throwing clay on a potter’s wheel, or blotting tea bags onto watercolor paper – it feels good to me. Making art allows me to slow down my mind chatter. Why is this useful? Balance. It’s all about balance.

I recently read a book, “My Stroke of Insight,” written by a neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD. While studying the anatomy of the brain at McLean Hospital, she awoke one morning to discover she was having a stroke on the left side of her brain. She managed to call for help and survive (and to recover from!) both the stroke and subsequent brain surgery. Able to observe and report her experiences from the view of a brain scientist, Dr. Taylor provides insightful clarity about the right brain and left brain phenomena. This book is a jewel. It supports my claim that right brain activity deserves our respect and nurturance.

Art Therapy is a strong tool in the support of hemispheric balance. Use it to your advantage. And don’t forget to have fun.