Art4Healing techniques can be used in a variety of situation. Crisis, trauma and illness are only a few. This process can also be helpful for those in leadership roles, in team-building, working through emotional conflicts and communicating vision.
June 30, 2011
Coping with hardships
A group of Wounded Warriors at a Military Base sort through their emotions. They are learning to cope with life’s hardships and experience healing through art and creativity. Art4Healing is also used at a local shelter for battered women. They have incorporated expressive art into their curriculum. The women voice their struggles and fears by using the language of color. These same techniques are also being used to help children in after school programs.
June 29, 2011
Artistic Expression- working through healing
Each participant has a unique and powerful way of communicating. It's personal, it's part of their story and in Art4Healing they are empowered to share it!
June 28, 2011
Today “Feels” Pink and Circular?
As classes progressed, I found my paintings didn’t lie. What I could not communicate in words, what was frustrating, or unsafe to say or think was showing up on my canvas. Personal dreams and aspirations also began to show through. Colors, textures and shapes began to surface and tell my story. This was a fascinating process, very intuitive. Even now, I can’t explain why the word “calm” feels violet with soft wavy lines and “safe” feels pink and circular. Last week “painful” felt yellow and green with sharp, hard edges. Putting paint down on piece of paper was becoming deeply personal. I was using a new language to communicate, colors and shapes became my vocabulary. This wasn’t always comfortable or enjoyable, in fact I felt pretty vulnerable at first.
One very significant moment for me was when Laurie asked us to pick any two colors to express how we receive or experience love. My hesitant hands, blank canvass and long reflective pause spoke volumes. That was a painful but profound moment. It caught me off guard. I was challenged to consider emotions that had been carefully and purposely buried. Over the next few weeks I gave myself permission to revisit that class assignment while at home. I filled many pages in my art journal, until there was nothing else more to say, or paint. It was healing. As the weeks progressed, I experienced more and more freedom. Thankfully healing is the continuous process of forgiveness and growth..... and love is it’s inevitable fruit.
June 27, 2011
Petal by petal
Class Assignment- "My Journey from Darkness to Light
Collage -Using old magazines and a glue stick.
Our assignment; choose one color and create a collage depicting the transition of change in our personal life. I picked red. Using the one color theme, I created a progression of darker reds that moved from the center.... outward. I wanted to make a flower to represent the idea of a new beginning. Instead of using scissors, my paper was torn to give it an uneven edge.
God is the only one I know who can take the darkness of our life and transform it into something beautiful. It takes time to grow and heal, like a lovely rose that opens gracefully one petal at a time until it is fully boomed. May the fragrance of the "ONE who redeemed me from an eternity of darkness"......linger long after I've faded away.
Oh no....don't look now
Believe it or not....not all "artist types" are crazy, broken or immoral. "As a culture we tend to define creativity too narrowly and to think of it in elitist terms, as something belonging to a small chosen tribe of "real artists." But in reality, everything we do requires making creative choices, although we seldom recognize that fact. The way in which we dress, set up our homes, do our jobs.....even the people we involve ourselves with- these all are expressions of our creativity. It is our erroneous beliefs about creativity, our cultural mythology about artists (all artists are broken, crazy, promiscuous, self centered or have trust funds) that encourage us to leave our dreams unfulfilled." Julia Cameron, The Complete Artist's Way
Random acts of Creativity
Soaking in the Truth
Everyday we have opportunity to learn valuable lessons from the simplest situations. Today I was reminded of an important "life lesson" from a sponge! In Art4Healing classes, participants use sponges instead of paint brushes. Although our sponges had been thoroughly used and were ready for the trash, I noticed they had taken on a unique beauty of their own. While other's were gathering their paintings to take home, I decided to gather up our classroom "trash" for a photo shoot.
Everyday I am given a choice to "soak-in" colors. Will I choose from a palette of bitterness, greed and criticism, or will my life be painted with forgiveness, hope and joy? Everyday we are given opportunities to absorb the colors of truth or the colors of a lie? Every experience (every color) is designed to mark us, making us unique in the hands of a loving Master Artist, the Creator of the universe! What some consider, ugly, worthless trash... God lovingly renames as "beautiful and valuable."
Expressive Art
The continual struggle for me in class is to remember one very important thing...We are NOT to approach these sessions like other art classes. We will be trained to engage in artistic expression-which can be quite abstract. The goal is NOT a great painting of trees and landscapes, fruit or buildings.
Participants are purposely given a very limited time to execute a painting This is done so we less tempted to over think, or critically scrutinize our compositions. As we abandon our need to control the outcome of a painting, we allow the colors, shapes and strokes to speak for themselves.
Art4Healing Facilitators use a specific method to carefully walk each participant through this process. There are many steps, which come in the form of questions. Each participants answers these questions using colors and shapes....not words or images. It's spontaneous. It sounds crazy, but it is surprising how our sub-conscience will respond if allowed, if we are willing to release control and surrender to the process. Very eye opening. The results can be dynamic and bring a lot of clarity to our thoughts, fears, memories and aspirations
Assignment- "The Incredible Shrinking Machine"
The questions and prompts from our instructor takes us on an unexpected journey inside ourself. First stop, our head/mind .....AUUgh! That seems sort of scary to me especially since I have been under so much stress! My instructor reminds us not to panic, be completely honest and respond quickly, using only two colors. For the next hour, each student was guided on an adventure-using specific questions and prompts we traveled from place to place, exploring and documenting with colors and shapes what was tucked inside of us. Our hurts, our joys...things that we never felt safe enough to express were showing up in our paintings! It was powerful.
Observation: In the picture below in the right corner there is darkness from a painful memory, but notice it isn't taking up much space. In fact the white paint around that area was a response to the question of forgiveness. Notice where the white paint is placed on the canvas.
The purple squares are a sense of destiny, important things I've learned through life, but I'm not sure how God is using them. How is He connecting them all together? Blue swirly lines can be seen trying to connect some of the squares.
The tangerine and yellow color speaks of joy, reaching into all directions of the canvas. The strong sweeping upward stokes-reflect hope....and so on. You get the idea I'm sure. When our paintings are complete, we spend a significant amount of time in class discussing and sharing what we gained from the assignment. It is a very enlightening process.
June 25, 2011
Value the process
A workshop assignment, “Melting Colors” - sounded easy enough. It was one of our first paintings and my first time ever using acrylics. My paint was ready, sponges and Q-Tips in hand, when all the sudden a flood of negative thoughts crashed in on me; These colors aren’t blending the way I want. How are we suppose to paint if we can only use a sponge and a Q-Tip? I don't have any control! These thoughts were followed by...Auugh...her painting is so much better than mine. Am I doing it right? This looks horrible! Apparently ALL my “committee members” are alive and well and decided to pay me a visit right then and there! It was an eye-opening experience. What did I learn that evening? First, there sure is a lot of chatter going on in my head! It was hard for me to surrender to the process and relax. I am a “result oriented” not “process oriented” person. I wanted clear instructions, a sense of control, plenty of feedback and lots of affirmation. I also realized, if left unchecked- my chatty committee members are capable of completely sabotaging even a simple 30 minute art project! YIKES. Not a pretty sight. This beginner art lesson (and the others that were soon to follow) would teach me the value of going through “the process".
Class Assignment- "Melting Colors"
"Usually when we say we can't do something, what we mean is we won't do something unless we can guarantee that we'll do it perfectly. When we are willing to accept that anything worth doing, might be worth doing badly...our options widen! If you didn't have to do something perfectly....what would you try?"
Julia Cameron, The Complete Artist's way
Permission to Speak
I find it fascinating how easily people can come up with a list of their "negatives" but truly struggle to identify their "positives".
On a sheet of black construction paper, using oil pastels, I was instructed to quickly write three positive things a good friend would say about me. This was a great way to "free-up" new students. It created a relaxed atmosphere in which we had permission to express ourselves more authentically, especially since these were not OUR words, but those of a good friend. Nobody could be accused of being boastful or presumptuous.
Art is Theraputic
Art4Healing vs Art Therapy
Those of us who have been certified to use the Art4Healing methods, as taught by Laurie Zagon, understand our role in the creative process. We understand that expressive art can be very therapeutic, but we not ART THERAPISTS. We are Facilitators. Our job is to create a safe and enjoyable atmosphere in which our students are free to explore or focus on any number of areas in their life using the Art4Healing method. My job is to help facilitate that creative process. I am not a medical professional and I am not at liberty to offer any form of psychological interpretation or attempt to diagnosis participants.
Committee Dismissed!
As we journey through life, a peculiar thing happens. We collect things, little treasure; old sweaters, favorite coffee mugs, a mason jar full of nails or colorful rocks. We also collect ideas and information. Some are good, others bad. We gather morsels of truth along with discouraging chunks of falsehood.
For the past twelve weeks my classmates and I have been on an wonderful “artistic” journey with Laurie Zagon, Founder/Director of Art for Creativity and Healing. Her unique method helps people express themselves creatively, identifying and uncovering emotional clutter that has “collected” while doing life. Laurie carefully guides her students through an intuitive and personal experience, using art and the language of colors, shapes and abstract images. Art for Healing isn’t about “artists” gathering to create beautiful masterpieces (although sometimes they do surprisingly emerge) these classes are designed for anyone and everyone. Laurie’s goal is to help facilitate healing. Art for Healing encourages students to investigate their current physical, spiritual and emotional state, consider their future dreams and courageously dislodge any negative thoughts or lies that could be lurking inside, slowing down their healing process.
During class time we humorously refer to the plethora of collective chatter in our head's, as the "Committee Members". Surely you’ve met them? Some of these notorious members include, the food police, the hair police, the 7th grade art teacher who criticized your master pieces, the old boyfriend or perhaps the parent who insisted art was a waste of time! The committees in our head always have something negative to say, especially if we dare to venture into new territory. These voices can be very good at distracting and sometimes they'll even try to sabotage us! You’re too old, too fat, too thin, you’ll look foolish, you’ll fail, you can’t, you won’t, YOU..... are not an artists!
Laurie’s advice to us when these unwelcome chatter-boxes arrive? “Dismiss your Committee Members, they're not welcome here.” I’d say that’s pretty good advice, not only for the classroom, but for life!
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