Creative Deed 365: July Offerings

July was a busy month for Creative Deed 365!  🙂

Earlier this month, Creative Deed 365 Minneapolis took place during this year’s AATA Conference in Minneapolis, which was a delight to follow via participants who shared this activity on social media.  There were some inspiring discoveries left and found during these 5 days!  Thank you to everyone who participated, both deeders and finders- so much fun!

I also discovered another local find on Instagram this month of a creative deed I left last week:

Below are all of July’s offerings that I made and distributed throughout the month…. I am still making progress with my Creative Deed 365 mailing list, where I am sending out creative deeds through the postal system too- some of July’s offerings went out today!

Instagram continues to be a popular place to share: over 700 creative deed related photos have been posted so far-!  Check them all out here with the #creativedeed365 hashtag.

Wow….definitely past the half way point now— August creative deeding awaits!

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Top 10 Memorable Minneapolis Art Therapy Moments

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to decompress and get into gear again after attending the 2015 American Art Therapy Association Conference in Minneapolis, but I wanted to share some of the memorable moments from the week– it was a schedule full of learning, presenting, re-connecting, meeting new faces, & inspiration that was well spent.

Here’s my Top 10 Memorable Moments (in no particular order):

1.  The Art Therapy Parade of awesome pioneer and inspiring art therapists that was creatively handcrafted by the Local Arrangements Committee for the Opening Session. Wow– this was great!

2. Temple Grandin’s Keynote on neurobiological functioning & information processing.  Dr. Grandin offered an inspiring lecture highlighting the sensory based value of art-making & creative expression with visual and “bottom up” thinking- and its unique role in helping make sense of information and experiences. Learn more here from her book “Thinking in Pictures”.  Really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Dr. Grandin as well!

3. So many great educational sessions to take in, not enough time to see everything!  Honorable mentions include the Edith Kramer Legacy and Decolonizing Art Therapy: Social Justice & New Paradigms of Care Plenaries.

4. Tribute to Don Jones with Art is Life is Art  by Bruce Moon- Earlier in 2015, the art therapy community mourned the passing of Buckeye Art Therapy Association Founder and all around amazing art therapy pioneer Don Jones.  During the AATA conference there were special moments to celebrate Don’s life and important contributions to the field, which also included being one of AATA’s co-founders and early President.  Highlights from Art is Life is Art reviewing Don’s life was a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to Don’s spirit, life, and work among a community of friends & colleagues who miss and cherish him so much!

5. Mary Tyler Moore Statue- An offsite break to Minneapolis’ Mary Tyler Moore Statue was a must go to site after a day of conference attending- only a few blocks away.

6. #AATA2015 photos with friends & colleagues and following conference live tweeting and activity on social media.

7. Standing room only @ our paper making panel about trauma & transformation and work with Peace Paper- Many thanks to everyone who was able to attend and to my panel colleagues! It was great to share our experiences and the therapeutic uses of paper making as part of the conference program– and see all the interest in this process! Thank you to Drew & Margaret who gifted us with hundreds of sheets of limited edition handmade paper especially made for conference attendees to take home with them.

8. Creative Deed 365 Minneapolis– I’ll be sharing more soon about this artful event as part of my monthly posting about this 365 project, but this was definitely a fun part of my conference experience this year— leaving creative deeds, receiving creative deeds, and seeing the discovery of creative deeds by other attendees. 🙂

9. Arts & Crafts Marketplace– The Marketplace was packed full of wonderful handmade goods and art by art therapists available for purchase!  I scored much creative goodness with buying a series of Lani Gerity’s morning pages (yay!):

10. Time to Refresh & Renew-  Spending time in presentations, making art, meeting up with friends & colleagues, as well as making new connections and taking in all things art therapy was great to be around on many levels.  All the collective work and service that continues to be done on behalf of art therapy is inspiring to take in and be a part of.

In wrapping up this post, I’ll leave with this Edith Kramer quote and featured in her legacy plenary session:

“Making art is my destiny- art therapy is my beloved profession.”

*****

Creative Deed 365 Minneapolis

Coming this summer…. Creative Deed 365 Minneapolis!

This summer, the national art therapy conference will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota July 8-12.  I’ll be attending and also presenting, as well as keeping up with my creative daily practice of leaving creative deeds for others to find while away.  I thought it would be fun to see if other art therapists and art therapy students also planning to attend this year’s conference would be interested in leaving their own creative deeds and creative goodness throughout the event during these five days.  Wanna join in?

If you’re going to the conference this year, it’s easy to participate either as a Creative Deeder or Creative Deed Finder:

• Creative Deeder: If you are interested in making and leaving Creative Deed Art, just make one for everyday of the conference and leave one each day in a random place onsite at the conference for another attendee or hotel visitor to discover. Creative Deed Art includes inspiring and encouraging handmade pieces of creative expression, infused with messages of kindness, hope, and positivity left behind for unsuspecting others.  Throughout this year in the Creative Deed Facebook Group, members often create artist trading card or index card size art, but there’s really no particular form or size.  I’ve been making my daily pieces of art with half size index cards, playing cards, and handmade paper cut to 3 x 2.5 inches to keep my practice manageable, both in the making and releasing. I also include a simple label on the back of each card that explains the intention of the project and what was just found.

• Creative Deed Finder:  If you find a creative deed while in attendance at the conference, use social media to let everyone participating in the project about your creative find using the hashtags #found #creativedeed365 #minneapolis.  Let’s keep the energy going virtually!

• You can also RSVP on this FB event page to be alerted of updates, ask questions, or get more information related to this fun adventure as it gets closer and happens onsite!

I hope you’ll make plans to join in on this creative fun this summer- as a Creative Deeder, Finder, or maybe both!  Imagine the creative goodness and energy that could be made, shared, and received during this week! 🙂

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at creativedeed365@gmail.com.