Art for Ethics Class

Mock Client Sam: 3: Greatest Accomplishment & Animal Family

What is your greatest accomplishment?

SAM: My greatest accomplishment has been earning respect and a living as a professional sculptor, which is NOT an easy thing to do.   I provided for my family; my wife got to stay home and raise our son.  Sometimes I wish they would give me a little credit for that.  I probably should have been more focused on being a husband and father, but it is what it is.  I cannot undo the past.

Create a collage depicting your family as animals

SAM: My family is from the canine group, we may fight to protect you or be loud and dangerous.  I am the lone wolf, watching and protecting, but not always 100% there.  My wife, tireless foundation of our family, is an Australian Shepherd.  Our son, (in our hearts he’ll always be a pup) is a Pit Bull; fiercely loyal and stubborn.  Our home is a lovely mountain, recently damaged by fire.

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.

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