Are you free or are you tied up?

"Tied Up" mixed media on paper

My dear friend Kerri runs an art group for therapists- it's basically where a couple of us from our grad school cohort meet at her office and take a couple hours to chat about our lives, being a therapist, and whatever else we want while we make art. Kerri always has a prompt of some sort to get us going, and provides the materials for it, too (because, you know, she's awesome). We usually end up doing some sort of art therapy type thing- we try to incorporate what we're thinking and feeling, and what's been occupying our energy at the time, thus helping to release that energy into our art and out of our brains and bodies.

The prompt this time was not a topic, but a method of creating - she has a cup full of strips of paper that say things like "write," "draw," "paint," "3-D," "pattern," "text," "photo," etc., and you have to do something using that method, and once you're done you pick another one at random and add that to your photo. The topic, in this case, was completely open-ended.

I did a piece about what was going on in my life and what had been on my mind. I had also been listening to Miike Snow in anticipation of seeing him live the following day (great show) and the song that was stuck in my head- "Animal," has a line that just happened to fit the theme perfectly. I'm not going to tell you what it's about because really, that's none 'o yo dayyyy-umn business, so let your imagination go wild.

What I really like about this activity and, in this case, the result of it, is that I'm not able to really plan my piece out very accurately, because I might have a great idea using paint and inevitably, I pull "write," out of the cup so then I'm stuck having to write something out or make a pattern or do whatever it says. I actually think it turned out well, but the evolution and end point of the piece was a surprise to me. It's almost like the art itself, paired with my own thoughts and feelings, take me on a journey- like it has something to show me rather than me controlling where it goes.

P.S. If anyone ever tries an art therapy kind of technique I talk about here and feel like sharing it, I'd love to see it and/or post it on the blog. Same goes for any non-prompted piece of art you've done and you're proud of... or not proud of for that matter!!

Using Art as Therapy

"Shame Box" Front. Mixed Media- box, acrylics, pincushion, pins, and paper.

 I haven't posted in a couple of weeks due to an unprecedented amount of work stress, however, I plan to do more posts over the next few days. Actually work stress, or any stress really, leads nicely into today's topic. Art can be not only relaxing and stress relieving, but therapeutic as well. Similar to journaling, it is a way to explore your thoughts and feelings, delve into them, or help get them out. I often feel that when I am ruminating over something, writing, painting, or drawing about it almost has the effect of removing the nasty, circular thoughts from my head and transferring them onto the paper or canvas I'm working on. It can be very relieving. Here is one example of a piece of work that combines 3-D art and writing, and can be continually modified to be used for whatever you need it to be at the time.

Back

This is my "Shame Box"- I purchased a cheap little jewelry or gift box from good will (a cigar box also
works great for this) and painted it with acrylics. The outside was originally supposed to represent the way I want the world to see me, with the inside being the way I see myself (also an interesting project), but instead it ended up being more of a study on shame and negative self-talk. I used magazine clippings to add text- "uncensored" in big letters over the top, and a bunch of little phrases like "secret revealed," "delves into her dark side," "intricate, though painful," "trouble at heart," "broken," and on the front, where the lock would be, simply, "beware," as if to warn the viewer that what they may see inside will not be pretty.

Inside

 The inside is painted in muddy browns and blacks to represent the "ugliness" of what it contains. Yet, contrasting from the implied ugliness of the words on the outside, the words on the inside are encouraging ones. In one corner of the lid it says "expect brilliance". The other side says "ask the tough questions." The questions in the box are from The Work of Byron Katie, which I cut from an Oprah magazine article about her. The four questions from her book Loving What Is are designed to challenge destructive thought patterns and negative self-talk.

Inside detail

Three of the four questions are inside ("who would you be without the thought?" is the text on the side in the lower part of the picture below). The object inside is a home-made pincushion (my sewing skills are not stellar), and on it I pinned thoughts or beliefs about myself that I either believed at the time or have believed over the years and am still trying to overcome. 

Inside detail

Thus the box both presents the ugliness and self-criticism that exists within me, and in doing so, challenges it. It's sort of "shrine" format gives the thoughts the weight of importance they can have on me, and shows that, by putting them on paper, they are only thoughts. They are no longer truths- they are only words on a paper. To be honest, I made this a few months ago and I don't even know what I wrote on them. I think I'll open them now!

I just read them and two of them still hit me emotionally, so I know those are things I need to still work on. However, three just made me feel sort of curious and thoughtful. I don't feel that I need to keep those in there because they don't have the emotional weight of a harmful negative belief.

I recommend doing projects like this as therapy (I'll post more!) and definitely recommend Byron Katie's book for learning how to question and challenge negative beliefs. She has a whole system, and you can find worksheet and such on her website. Her personal story is an interesting one as well.

I have to give a shout out to Kerri, a fellow therapist who uses art as therapy (yeah I know there's an easier way to say that but we wouldn't want to anger the Art Therapists, who get to put their titles in capitals). Kerri often uses boxes in her art, usually to represent the feelings, beliefs, and emotions one tries to hide. This project was partially her idea, and I'll totally post some of her stuff if she'll let me!