IN PRAISE OF ART THERAPY
Photo: Melanie, student (on right) at work with Art Therapist, Barbara Hirst (1993). - Photo by Bourgeois
(Please excuse errors in spelling and grammar - writer is visually impaired) -PART 1: Condensed, in part, from "A Starting Point" - B. Hirst.
Art is the evidence of human potential. It is
also about finding one's way in the world. It is paradoxical that while all individuals have an innate capacity towards creativity and art making most grow to deny their ability.
Children approach art without biases and inhibitions. There are no boundaries to creativity.
In early adulthood art-making takes on a new form and is ridden with self-limitations.Art is used as a means to view the state of one's self in a discriminating way.
When this attitude prevails, the idea of art becomes a frightening prospect. As a result, for many people creative potential remains untapped and the inner person becomes unchanging and stagnant.
Art therapy can provide persons the opportunity to return to the spiritual world of childhood and reclaim the unused function. The art therapist honors this search and additionally recognizes that within art lies within the constant opportunity to change.
Every creative endeavour necessitates a journey into the unknown. Individuals prepared for a new journey may feel empowered to recognize their creative potential and call upon this potential whenever the need arises. Information and skills that are learned in the process of art making can be adapted to daily living.
PART II
A Personal Testimony of How Art Therapy has Facilitated a Quest for Wholeness and Gives Vision to Lost Memories
As an individual living with cognitive physical limitations, I find myself vulnerable and witnessing incompleteness. I have a need to find the "New Me". "Living in the state of confusion, where I no longer know myself, I have the need to pursue the imagine of my inner person - art-making is helping me to develop a sense of self-awareness and wholeness. It gives me an opportunity and a tool to explore different aspects of my person and gives definition to who I am. From this experience I can give myself recognition and work to provide personal growth experiences that will enable me to be a full and complete person - pleasing to myself.
I often find myself approaching art with hesitance. Addressing this barrier by approaching art as play does not always work to remove this block. As an individual who is "obsessed" to work, I find it difficult to put work aside and play. As a child, "play" was always something I was permitted after all my chores and work had been completed. As an adult, play has become something I find difficult and now even more so as my physical and cognitive limitations demand that I work hard at trying to get through the most simple tasks of a day. My work is never done and it is difficult to allow myself play when work is an obstacle in my path to art-making.
Frequently, I feel the need and expectation for my artistic outcome to be something technically correct. This expectation presents yet another barrier to the pleasure of art-making. A weekly visit with an Art Therapist, Barbara Hirst has given me an opportunity to unravel these issues that impede my art-making.
Barbara has guided me over these hurdles by encouraging me to approach art from a different angle. With her guidance, I have recognized her need to put art-making as play aside and use the word "exploration" as my approach.
Each exercise is now an activity of exploration and the outcome is an unexpected, unanticipated product. There is no good or bad - it is all undetermined from the onset. The outcome may be pleasant or displeasing - each being a learning and growth process.
Barbara's guidance has facilitated my being able to unveil some forgotten precious memories. She has achieve this through the presentation of color. One of my favourite memories that has evolved in art-making takes me back to a child of about seven years young. The occasion was my first visit to a greenhouse that my Grandfather was tending in the winter months. As we entered the greenhouse, my first impression was that of being introduced to a fairyland of color and sweet scents. The memory was so real that I could feel the warmth of my Grandfather's loving hand as we walked through the rows of lush greenery.
Art therapy has enhanced the quality of my life. It has given me the tools needed to travel a different journey and is responsible for renewed awareness of my very environment.
My artwork can be viewed at
Addendum: It is of interest that my Twin, Melodie, a quadriplegic, returned to her university studies (most MVA) and furthered her career interests in the field of art therapy. Her goal was to work with autistic children and did complete her journey.....she was known as the only Canadian to have achieved a Bachelor of Nursing and with a speciality in Psychiatry.
signed: Nightingale
signed: Nightingale
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