Uptight Art Projects Do you think it is important that someone who is using the arts as a form of healing actually be an expert in that mode? Should art therapists be artists? What happens if they aren’t, and really don’t understand how to make art? Sometimes when I am out and about on the web, I come across prompts […]
I’m scared of you. I’m scared of me.
Midlife crisis, art, and saving the world
Warning: I cuss in this blog post. And it meanders. Sorry. Why make art? Why dance? Why sing? Why write? To make a living? To show off? To heal? To relax? To be comfortable? To have a pretty home? Did I ever tell you about my mid-life crisis? Boy, did I love mine. I don’t have the patience to write […]
From spirit to paper to clay…
If you ever get tired of feeling like you have to come up with new ideas, fret no more. There are two reasons. First: reiterating symbols and themes allows you to explore and understand them more deeply, so stop trying to come up with new stuff and see what happens if you try working with the same ideas in new, […]
Who’s in charge of your art? (AKA, how to believe in yourself)
I’ve been dabbling with a blog post about the different approaches to art making. This was triggered recently by a parent who signed up to participate with her daughter in my Kids’ Art Camp. I was excited to get a parent participant, but unfortunately she didn’t realize what she was signing up for. Thinking that the class was going […]
Are you fake with your art?
I am in Florida, at the airport, on my way home from two weeks of intensive studio classes for my masters degree. There are so many layers and angles to my experience here…I am still digesting it all, but a theme definitely emerged. During our final discussion for the printmaking class, one of the other students, Annette Saldana, said “just […]
How to use authentic movement to relieve anxiety and stress
An unwelcome friend has returned to my life. Anxiety. Ahhh…..anxiety. I went a few years without much of it, but lately it has been providing a bitter hum to my days. I hoped giving up caffeine would solve it. It did not. Anxiety. My dear friend. It started up a couple of weeks ago, in response to a stressful […]
Do you love your body?
I miss being 8 years old and how freely I danced. My mother was in graduate school, and she listened to classical music while she studied. And I would dance. And dance and dance. I loved to move. Until puberty. This is familiar story to so many women. The moment when their body became a stranger. The realization that their […]
So what exactly is Expressive Arts? And what does it have to offer you?
This is my manifesto. 1. Expressive arts is intermodal Not just multimodal. Intermodal. That means we use the different modes to see our images, thoughts and yearnings through the different lens each offers, in combination with each other. Our cells express hidden wisdom through expressive movement. Spontaneous image making is a form of active imagination – dreaming while awake. Improvised […]
Healing a pesky sub-personality
Sisters, let me tell ya, it has been QUITE the week here. I love summer break, don’t get me wrong. But being home all the time forces me to deal with all the stuff I escaped by going to work. The grand experiment this week is to see what effect creativity has on my ability to deal. And what […]
The art version of kale and spinach
Sometimes color makes me sick. It makes my throat tighten in the same why it tightens when I think about Cinnabon. Sickly, overstimulated, fake, cheap even. When this happens, it is hard to make art. My friend’s 8 year old daughter had the solution. “Sometimes I just pick one color, just one colored pencil and I draw a peace […]