I'm doing an 8 week art therapy skillset course online. My partner found it in a random online search and I am very grateful because it is filling in some gaps for me. As with all therapy education (I believe this is so in psychology too), you need to be 'in therapy' yourself - which means I have to experience the exercises I'm learning about.
This one is called 'The Figure Within'. You have to: 'draw yourself in any body of water' (it can be a bath or a stream) and answer some associated questions. This is supposed to reveal how you are feeling. I'm a bit surprised this came out because if you'd asked me yesterday when I did it, as we watched the US election results unfold, I would have said I was a bit anxious about life in general. But I know there is a calm core of me somewhere in there and maybe that's what this tapped into.
I've been facilitating art 'therapy' for decades - I've just never had any formal education. I've worked with all sorts of people - from the mentally ill to youth, community groups and Aboriginal people. It's pretty simple yet also very complicated - but I know one thing for sure. Art heals the soul. I don't do art therapy in any obvious way, but over many years of using it myself (inadvertently at first), I have become reasonably adept at reading images and reading people. I love it.
Image: Author. Pen and watercolour.
Your art always makes me wish I had some talent and ability to convey an inner feeling with ink and paint and paper. Always evocative and moving, telling a story and also speaking of things not said with words.
ReplyDeleteIt might be hard to believe Robin but talent is probably the least important aspect of art. I know people want things to look a certain way and it is very frustrating when they don't. We have an idea in our heads and it just doesn't come out the way we see it and that is the most difficult thing to come to terms with when you are starting out - indeed for many years until you develop some skill. But I have found the most important thing is to DO it - even if it's just colouring inside someone else's lines. Even basic drawings of your own can be a lot of fun and do you a lot of good.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I teach art I like art as therapy because it takes away the pressure of doing it 'well'. A wise old friend of mine who passed away a couple of years ago used to say: there are 3 things to overcome when you do art - 'the fear of making a mess, the fear of failure and the fear of looking stupid'. The fear of failure is probably the hardest to overcome. I'll let you in on a secret - even when you have the skills as I have, nothing ever turns out as good, or the way it looks inside your head. It just goes with the territory. The trick is to do it anyway. After 45 years of being an artist I still approach each new piece of work with some trepidation.
I just love seeing your paintings again Michelle. They feel like a returning x
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah. It comes and goes. Maybe it will be a returning.....I never know.
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