Today marks the completion of another year of daily creative practice with my annual 365 project…. after being so curious what it would be like to take on this kind of challenge, I am so glad I embarked on one in 2013 on New Year’s Day…. Each year and creative undertaking since has graced me with something new to explore over the last 4 years… Towards the end of my first 365 project, I reflected on the discoveries and reminders it helped inspire.
I am re-visiting this list today to make some updates and to reflect more on honoring the lessons that continue to keep me committed to this important process:
1. I’m always amazed and astonished by the containment of small holding spaces in art making. Working within a small space has helped me make each 365 project manageable. Time and time again the power that this small space holds in its message, form, and process is awesome to witness.
2. Remember to slow down. This reminder is only one of the important lessons that my 365 projects has gifted me. Taking time out to stop and pause for a moment to work on the day’s image is so important. Sometimes it might feel like there’s no time or things are just so busy that taking this time seems impossible… but engaging in this process helps bring a grounding, focus, and presence that I have come to value and appreciate every day.
3. Appreciate each day. Each creative piece and image is an expression of gratitude for another day. It also allows me the opportunity to be thankful for the moment, which is important to recognize and not take for granted.
4. Trust the process. There are definitely some days that I have struggled to find time or don’t feel as connected to the image I have created in comparison to others, but at the end of the day it all works out. The process of creating everyday outweighs the emphasis on the product. Just like art therapy!
5. I really do have 20-30 minutes everyday to create. Probably one of the biggest surprises after 4 years of consecutive creating! It’s still true! Some days it may have been 10 minutes, sometimes longer than a half an hour, but there was always time within each of the 1460 days.
6. Community: It has been inspiring to connect to and support others working on their 365 projects or daily creative practice through social media… 🙂
2016 also brought a couple of opportunities to share my 365 projects, which I enjoyed contributing to:
In the spring, I was interviewed by Australian Art Therapist Jade Herriman for her blog about last year’s and this year’s 365 projects.
This summer Ohio’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association featured my 365 projects as part of their Featured Artist/Art Therapist interview series.
I thank everyone for their support and encouragement with this process over the last four years! It has definitely helped– ❤ I am looking forward to launching another 365 project for the new year ahead. I can’t wait to share it with you!
Happy creating in 2017- What are some of your creative goals to focus on in the next 12 months?
Ursuline College’s Graduate Art Therapy and Counseling Program, in collaboration with Cuyahoga Community College’s Division of Arts and Sciences, announces its 14th annual arts and healing exhibition at Tri-C Gallery East. This year the exhibition, art. speak. heal: Honoring Veteran Stories will focus on veterans, their families, and the creative arts. The exhibit is also co-sponsored by the Buckeye Art Therapy Association and Cleveland Foundation.
Submitting art work for this exhibition is open until January 23 and 24. More information about entering art can be found here.
I’ve been helping with getting works from the Peace Paper Project for the show and grateful to Drew and Margaret for sending some of the handmade paper made in 2013 Veteran Paper Workshops:
“Veteran Paper Workshop provides veterans with hand papermaking as a vehicle for self-expression and healing. Peace Paper Project facilitates Veteran Paper Workshop in collaboration with Art Therapists and Recreation Therapists to ensure that veterans experience the benefits of hand papermaking in supportive environments. Participants are invited to reconstitute their military uniforms into paper.”
Rachel Mims, a FSU art therapy graduate student and US Army Veteran contributed Peace Paper she made from her military uniforms and then overlayed with pulp printing of images from her training and deployment:
Rachel Mims (2012) Peace Paper: 2003 Deployment
Rachel also submitted her very first art journal, a space that she used to cope with and manage her emotions and experiences related to her Medical Discharge from the Army and coping with life changing injuries she sustained during her service:
I used this art journal to help me get through all the difficult emotions that arose when I realized that my injury was not healing and I would be disabled for the rest of my life; this was the same time that my medical discharge from the Army began. I was supposed to lead by example but being injured meant I could not do most of what was required of me; this was very difficult for me mentally and emotionally – instead of being a great leader I was suddenly worthless (in the eyes of the Army at least!). The journal was my way of dealing with the difficult days and encouraging myself to keep going!”
Rachel Mims Art Journal Pages (2011)
Now in her Art Therapy Internship at FSU, Rachel, alongside with a music therapist will be providing student veterans with free music and art therapy as part of a project she’s helped create called The Veteran Creative Arts Therapy Initiative.
Meredith McMackin, a doctoral student in FSU’s Art Therapy Program, also submitted an image for the Ursuline/Tri-C Exhibit that she created during Peace Paper’s FSU workshop that honored her son who was killed in Iraq in 2007. Her handmade paper was made from the cloth of the dress she bought for his memorial service.
Titled Release, Meredith openly shares this in the piece’s powerful statement:
“…Cutting the dress into small squares, I released them into a vessel of water, which fed into a machine that slowly ground the fibers down to pulp. I felt a sense of ease and peace watching the fibers dissolve the tightness of painful memories and float freely in the cleansing water…. The finished piece symbolizes my son’s release into spirit as well as my own transformation inspired by his self-less gift of life.”
You can read more about Meredith and her commitment to providing workshops at the FSU Veteran’s Center, as well as serving as a trained Peer Mentor for the Tragedies Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) in these two links. Meredith and Rachel are also presenting a workshop on Paper Making as Trauma Intervention for PTSD with Veterans at the 2014 Florida Art Therapy Association in early February. It is inspiring to see the work of Peace Paper continue in the art therapy community!
Much gratitude to Drew & Margaret of Peace Paper, Rachel, and Meredith for contributing art for this exhibition, as well as sharing the personal stories and inspiring work behind the images that will be on display. If you are in the NE Ohio area, the exhibit will be open through March 6 at Tri-C’s Gallery on the Eastern Campus. The Massillon Museum, The National Museum of Veterans Art, the Louis Stokes VA Medical Hospital, and more will also be part of this year’s exhibit.
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In addition to the art exhibition opening on February 13, there will be a free community lecture that evening by David Peacock, Therapeutic Director of Valor Home in Akron, Ohio and on the following day, a panel about the value and availability of arts and healing programs for veterans and families will be offered, as well as expressive therapies workshops.
I’m also honored to be part of the panel discussion to speak more about The Peace Paper Project, as well as offer a creative workshop with Art Therapist Laurel Larson, MPS, ATR who works for Volunteers of America in collaboration with the Cleveland VA providing art therapy services at the Veteran’s Domiciliary in Wade Park.
Our workshop on February 14, In Honor, Service, and Mission: Artist Challenge Coins (ACCs) is inspiredby the tradition of Challenge Coins, commonly used in the military and within service organizations. A challenge coin is a small coin or medallion symbolizing achievement, membership, or recognition, as well as given to increase morale and community among belonging members. In the spirit of Challenge Coins, workshop participants will create and exchange mixed media ACCs as tokens of affirmation, service, strength, gratitude, and encouragement.
My Artist Challenge Coins (ACCs)
There will also be additional expressive therapies workshops to choose from focused on drama, creative writing, storytelling, and healing facilitated by Expressive Therapist Dr. Lisa Peacock of the Women Warrior Project and Vet Art Ohio, as well as Dr. Shianne Eagelheart, LIC, Founder of The Redbird Center for Healing. If you are a professional looking for continuing education, CEUs will be available. To register, download the workshop form here.
I hope if you are in the NE Ohio area, you will join us to attend this special event on February 13 & 14 or visit the exhibit while it is on display.
This past Friday & Saturday, I attended Ohio’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association Annual Symposium, Self Expression and Healing. Since I’ve returned home, I continue to work on art that I started over these two days:
Sacred Chest of Dreams
One is a small wooden chest that was given to our group after the paper, Grace, Creativity and Breakthrough: Saint Hildegard of Bingen, presented by Ursuline College’s Master of Art Therapy Program Founder Sister Kathleen Burke Ph.D, OSU, as a takeaway art-making experience to celebrate awakening moments, our creative gifts, and honor our dreams. I painted and stained my treasure chest with lots of green: a color symbolizing life, growth, and vitality that St. Hildegard defined with the word viriditas. Inside the chest I added tissue paper with a variety of gems, seaglass, and some of my previously created fragments. We were prompted to write down/about our own dreams and awakenings to also include inside this special chest.
Another art-making experience from the Symposium I am continuing to work on is inspired by Art Therapist and Author Dr. Harriet Wadeson‘s keynote. Dr. Wadeson’s keynote address and workshop focused on using creative self-expression in the face of illness. Her own personal experience and journey with cancer and described in her book Journaling Cancer in Words and Images: Caught in the Clutch of the Crab, was the foundation for what she presented over the Symposium’s two days. It was very powerful to see and learn more about the altered book pages and emotional expression Dr. Wadeson created in response to and cope with her cancer.
During Dr. Wadeson’s workshop, we were prompted to reflect on illness or a major crisis/time in our life and how this experience impacted or perhaps changed our sense of who we are. The suggested prompt was to create a “before” and “after” self image to represent this reflection.
From my Smashbook
As I worked in my smashbook in response to this art directive, I was humbled by the power of art (again) to help sustain us through difficult and challenging times. The making of altered books or working within a journal has been a particularly safe space for me to do this, using both written words and images, to provide a container for those emotions, thoughts, and moments hard to put into verbal language.
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“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” ~Georgia O’Keeffe
I just returned back from the 2012 BATA Symposium, Releasing and Reforming: Art Therapy as Social Action in Dublin, Ohioand wanted to share some photos and inspirations from the last few days:
Breaking Rag @ the 2012 BATA Symposium’s Pre Conference Course
Peace Paper was honored to be part of this year’s Symposium and it was great to team up with Drew and Margaret again to introduce to Symposium attendees how papermaking can be used as a form of social action, trauma intervention, and transformation. Thank you to the BATA Board of Directors, BATA President Michele Tarsitano Amato, and Symposium Program Chair Marshae Armante for inviting us and their hospitality. We enjoyed exploring the many ways papermaking can be applied to the art therapy setting, the work of art therapists, and the enthusiasm about these possibilities from attendees.
I also attended a breakout workshop facilitated by Michigan art therapists Margaret McGuinness, MA, MEd, ATR-BC, Kathy Schnur, MA, MEd, ATR-BC, and their colleague Karen Smigelski, MA, LPC about The Power of Words to Promote Change. They introduced us to creating “Taglines” with polymer clay, beads, wire, and other creative embellishments to create messages & affirmations for cultivating kindness, as well as an intervention for responding to/exploring the impact of bullying. The workshop reinforced how our words have power & energy that affect others, emotions, and thoughts. Learn more about the workshop’s concept, their data on the power of words, and The Power of Words to Promote Change workshops being offered through WillowsEdge Counseling and Art Center.
Below is my “Tagline” I created during their workshop:
Tagline: Listen to your inner voice
I also added another spread to my Adventure Gluebook inspired by the Symposium with paper & goodies from last month’s paper stash swap, some items and handmade paper I picked up or received during the Symposium to use as collage stuff, and my SMASH label maker. I think my Tagline could go inside one of the pockets or be attached to one of the pages tabs where it would be more visible. This gluebook is really starting to fill out nicely! I look forward to continuing to work on it.
Last week-end during a visit by Drew & Margaret, they kindly left me with two large pieces of Nepalese style Peace Paper they recently made at the Grass River in Lampson Falls, New York (thank you!). Check out the awesome photos of their outdoor papermaking in action here.
I wish you could all feel the texture of this piece! I chose one of the sand dusted papers covered with embedded pine needles to work on with beeswax, crayon wax, a little acrylic paint, and some earthy tone paper pieces received in the recent 6 Degrees of Creativity 2 paper stash swap. Lastly, I added words as part of a Prayer Flag made by Drew and also serves as one of Peace Paper’s Icons:
love on earth
praise the lives of all
and let me deliver
the aid of humanity
to offer persistent
hope and trust
My next step is to attach a wooden dowl rod & twine across the top so it can hopefully be displayed as a wall hanging.
Margaret, Drew, and I are looking forward to spending time at this year’s BATA Symposium presenting about Peace Paper and exploring the variety of ways that the papermaking process can be used for social action, trauma intervention, and within the art therapy setting. It’s going to be great three days…
Over the last week it has been increasingly hot here…with temperatures heating up to 100 degrees at times. It’s finally cooled down a little, but on a couple of these hot days I’ve pretty much remained inside when I could, with thankful thoughts for central air conditioning, crossing my fingers for the power to stay on, and using the time to engage in some art-making!
I’ve been gathering materials we talked about at GMU that could be used for adapting to this process if you don’t own or have access to a Hollander Beater:
Specialty pulps to add to the blended paper mix for strengthening
I used a variety of paper material in making this batch of pulp: magazine photo collage, handwritten content, some extra pulp I saved from this papermaking experience, and added a little bit of specialty pulp: denim, cotton rag, and wool.
The transformation begins!
Using my handmade mould and deckle (stretcher bars & stapled window screen around the frame), I pull a sheet!
Wet paper in need of drying enjoys the extreme heat on our sunroom windows
September 6 will include a pre-conference course: Papermaking as Art Therapy for Trauma Intervention that will provide attendees with an understanding about how the papermaking process can be beneficial with populations as a form of social action and therapeutic transformation in trauma and loss intervention. During this course, participants will be provided with a closer look at the papermaking process as they create handmade sheets of paper from pulp (with a portable Hollander Beater) collected along Peace Paper’s travels, explore concepts related to art as transformation and how this media can be implemented further with various art therapy settings.
On the evening of September 7 there will be a presentation highlighting lecture and visual content related to utilizing papermaking and creative expression as a cathartic process to give meaning, create transformation, and provide empowerment through releasing and reforming fibers into new stories and new beginnings.
Saturday morning September 8 will include an artmaking workshop inspired by concepts and intentions dedicated to social action, peacemaking, and using papermaking as a transformative media for self-expression and making Peace Paper Flags to explore reflections, intentions, and expressions for peace and change using handmade paper created from Peace Paper’s recent travels.
Check out the all the inspiring presentations and offerings at this year’s Symposium here. Registration is now open!
I received the above quote as part of a kind note from a co-worker who was leaving our agency this week with the observation that it made her think of me and my work with art therapy. My co-worker also expressed that this sentiment came through in an article I recently did for the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Today’s Top Jobs after career writer Terri Mrosko invited me to share my work as an art therapist.
I was happy to learn about Terri’s interest in art therapy and the opportunity to promote the field within my local community as one example of what an art therapist does, as well as the educational standards and professional credentialing involved for this career path.
Cleveland Plain Dealer-Today’s Top Jobs
Spotlighting art therapy as a career choice is also significant and timely in Ohio, as legislation for art therapy licensure (SB 205) is currently active in the Senate’s Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee with hopes that the bill will continue to keep moving forward. Legislation for art therapy in the state of Ohio is very important for a number of reasons, one of which is that regulation provides consumers the peace of mind that they are receiving art therapy services from an individual who has obtained the proper educational training and professional standards to practice as an art therapist. Employers will also know who is appropriately qualified to offer art therapy services.
It would be great to see this achievement for art therapy in Ohio finally happen!
To learn more about SB 205 check out this article and if you (or others you know) live in Ohio, find out how you can help advocate for this legislation through visiting the Buckeye Art Therapy Association website.
Thank you to Terri Mrosko, photographer George Shuba, and the Plain Dealer for putting together a nice piece promoting art therapy- Much gratitude!
All proceeds from this fundraiser will benefit BATA’s Legislative Fund and efforts associated with Senate Bill 205, legislation to license art therapists and the practice of art therapy in the State of Ohio. Check out this article to learn more about the bill and how to help here.
I can’t wait to see what other art is donated this year for this important event! If you are attending, don’t forget to bring something to help out the cause!
When the world says, “Give up,” Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.” ~Author Unknown
In my Saturday morning supervision group which currently includes five art therapists working towards obtaining their Art Therapist Registration (ATR), we started working on a group Prayer Flag Project, as a means to engage in more art making and explore implementing this idea and intervention with various populations and settings.
Something about prayer flags have always fascinated me– perhaps because it is intention based, perhaps because the intention/mantra of the flag created is also connected to mutual sharing with others, or perhaps because it is an extension and symbol of hope. Perhaps all three and then some.
Several years ago, I did an art therapy workshop for The Center for Therapy through Art (now The Art Therapy Studio) about The Art of Prayer Flags. As a quick introduction to the purpose and some of the symbols behind prayer flag making I thought sharing this presentation from the workshop would be helpful:
The prayer flag format for our group’s project was inspired by a workshop I attended last year at the Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium facilitated by Emily Johnson and Cathy Malchiodi about creating intention based mini-message flags for exchanging. As presented in this particular workshop, the art technique included using a square styrofoam plate to create a design connected to a wish or intention, followed by printing a series of fabric squares with ink.
In today’s group, we used the styrofoam carving/printing concept with acrylic paint on roughly 6 x 6 inch cotton fabric squares. Instead of attempting to design words backwards on the styrofoam, rubber stamping letters and ink were available to use for highlighting the intention of the flag. Throughout this project we will each create six flags, then exchange our flags with one another to create a string of intentions, wishes, and hopes inspired by members of the group.
My prayer flag making: Beginnings
I also recently discovered The Prayer Flag Project, a collective project started in June 2011 to spread peace, good will and kindness, one flag at a time through contributing artists and the project’s blog. The project had some good tips listed under their tutorial section, including dating your flag, adding bits of printed text from books related to your intention, and to make journaling/writing about your flag part of the process.
It will be fun to see this project and process develop over the next few weeks and I hope to share the final results when we are all done!
The 2011 Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium, Resiliency & Empathy: The Art of Healing Traumais being held September 30 and October 1 in Dublin, Ohio. This year’s keynote sponsored by BATA and the Michigan Association of Art Therapy features Cathy Malchiodi who will be presenting an evening lecture and morning workshop on the impact of resiliency, gratitude, and empathy in relationship to trauma intervention and recovery. A pre-conference course with Cathy focused on Trauma Informed Art Therapy is also being offered in addition to the Symposium.
This year’s BATA Symposium Program includes additional presentation offerings and workshops on the application and use of art therapy with grief and loss, traumatic brain injury, adolescents, as well as supervision, social media & ethics, and self-care. I am especially looking forward to Elizabeth Sanders Martin and Emily Johnson’s workshop on Celebrating Life in Traditions of the Day of the Dead.
On Friday afternoon during the Symposium I’ll be presenting Art as a Voice: Art Therapy with Survivors of Domestic Violence which will provide an overview of art therapy with survivors of domestic violence and address trauma informed considerations, common treatment goals, and art interventions to consider when working with battered women in a shelter setting. Content will be presented on the impact of domestic violence, how art therapy can provide a voice and facilitate support around key issues such as safety, the cycle of violence, and crisis intervention.
creativity in motion 
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