"Precious" Mixed Media on Paper

This piece was created for Clinical Art Therapy class, 2nd semester of the MAAT program at St Mary of the Woods.  

The directive was general- create a piece that reflects your idea of art therapy.

The specific technique is new, one that I am really enjoying, mixed media with chalk pastels.  I created a sketch, then a foundation of values using acrylic paints.  Then I finished the piece using graphite, chalk pastel stick and chalk pastel pencils.  The piece was sealed with matte spray sealant.  

The title of the piece is "Precious".   The piece reflects client  / therapist interaction; large eyes and hands & small mouth symbolize my views of the therapeutic platform.  

MAAT St Mary-of-the-Woods January Residency Art Pieces

 These pieces were created during the January residency starting semester two of the MAAT program at St Mary of-the-Woods College in Indiana.  At the conclusion of our first gathering, we created small "stones" to carry with us through the semester and inspire us with a personal message or thought when things become challenging, stressful, etc.  (Not if, when).  My personal goal for the semester is to just Be in the moment, experience and enjoy the process.  This is something I've wanted to do since I graduated from University of Tennessee with my BFA in the late '90s. 

My "stone" shows a man blissed out in the moment of creating music, on the backside it says, "Dont Worry" and "Sheer joy"

During the second day of the residency, we had art creation time, and were given the directive to create a piece that reiterates or elaborates upon the intention of the stone.   

On the final day at the conclusion of our Clinical Art Therapy class, we created group art pieces.  Starting with an independent piece that we then tore into chunks, we shared out our chunks, then created another independent piece using the group's pieces.  My final work depicted a man sailing away on his journey.  All the little flying creatures are my cohorts flying off to their various corners of the world, from California to Florida to Hong Kong.  

Shadow Self Collage Box Project

  

This piece was created as an assignment for the 1st semester Master of Arts Art Therapy program at Saint Mary of the Woods College.

The directive was to create a box that reflected both our external and inner or "shadow" self as they relate to our role as an Art Therapist.

Path of Least Resistance Collage

This piece was created as an assignment for the 1st semester of the Master of Arts: Art Therapy program at Saint Mary of the Woods College.  It was created to reflect the style of Art Therapist Cliff Joseph.

It is a collaborative piece created with my family in response to the arson my parents experienced during the summer of 2013.  While my parents were vacationing in Alaska, a criminal broke into their home, stole their car, and burned their home to cover the evidence.  This piece reflects the family unity and support for my parents as they recover from this senseless, destructive, life changing, and violating crime.

The piece is called "The Path of Least Resistance" which is how the path fire chooses was described to me by a Fire Marshall at the scene of the crime.  He described fire as flowing like water.  For the background of the image, I dropped india ink onto wet paper to replicate the flowing quality of the fire.  I also used gray chalks to combine with the wet ink as a metaphor for smoke and fire damage.

Each family member created their own personal figure out of collage materials.  These were placed on top of the destruction, and linked together to represent our unity.

Art Therapy Chronology

This piece was created as an assignment for the 1st semester of the Master of Arts: Art Therapy program at Saint Mary of the Woods College.
It is a chronology of a pivotal moment in the history of Art Therapy - the creation of the Art Therapy Association

Art Therapy Mandalas: Framing My Art Therapist Identity

This was created as part of an assignment for the 1st semester of the Master of Arts: Art Therapy (MAAT) program at Saint Mary of the Woods College.
The piece is a response to 8 questions regarding my own Art Therapist philosophy and identity:
Why are all pieces partial self-portraits, what is the role of the image in the art therapy process, what is meant by "embrace the mystery", why should art therapists make are, what is your personal motivation for making art, as a metaphor what does the image of the "canvas mirror" represent, what does my canvas mirror look like today, how does my canvas mirror reflect my various roles and my motivation for making art?

 

 

 

 

Art Therapy Continuum

This was an assignment was completed for the Master of Arts: Art Therapy (MAAT) program at Saint Mary of the Woods College.
The table reflects components of the Art Therapy "Continuum" - in particular specifying the Healing and Emergent functions of the projects.

Sketchbook Art Therapist Role / Self-portrait Collage

This piece is a self-portrait collage in response to research on the roles of an art therapist for my AR 510 Theories of Art Therapy course at St Mary of the Woods College.   The reading was by Bruce Moon, I think title was Intro to Art Therapy.   A section of the reading talked about the soul, and spirituality in art therapy practice, and used the work Shaman in relation to the art therapist role.  This really struck me, I got online and researched Shamanism a bit and felt the "role" really paralleled my own developing theoretical belief system.  Much of the imagery in the collage is in response to this concept.  Another key element of the text that really struck me was describing art therapy as a Metaverbal (beyond verbal)  practice vs a Non-verbal practice.  Moon stressed it was important to define art therapy by what it IS vs what it is NOT.  

I have often stated when asked to explain my art pieces over the years that it is really hard to put them into words....that is what I love and need about art is it allows me to communicate when words fail me.  Moon described the act of creating art with the client as THE therapeutic process....not the act of verbally analyzing the work post creation.  

taking notes and sketching while doing reading from "Introduction to Art Therapy" Bruce Moon for written paper and self-portrait collage assignment for AR 510 Theories of Art Therapy