A few weeks ago, I published a post on IG and Facebook, sharing some of my history with art therapy. Since that was somewhat brief I thought I’d expand on it here both for sharing purposes and for the opportunity to look back on that history.
As a kid growing up in New York, and spending my first 10 years in Brooklyn, I was exposed to amazing museums, a wide array of music and opera, and spectacular libraries.
It was a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that became the most memorable and impactful museum visit of my childhood. I so clearly remember that cold and gray day. I may have been around 9 years old. Although the Met is filled with beautiful open spaces and galleries, on that day we entered a smaller more secluded room filled with works on paper by Jackson Pollack. They weren’t the giant paintings that come to mind when you think of Jackson Pollack. They were smaller works, packed with imagery, and representing his creative process while undergoing psychotherapy. That exhibit has stayed with me ever since and it fueled a fascination with art as a therapeutic tool.
By the time I was in 9th grade, I became my own art therapist, using art for stress reduction, to express my feelings, to make decisions, and for greater personal understanding. For years, the foundation for many of my paintings were self discovery and processing inner work.
In college, when it came time to sign up for a student teaching assignment, I announced that I only wanted to be assigned to the Rosemary Kennedy Center, a nearby special education school. It was an ideal experience. I worked as the art teacher in the vision impaired program and spent one day a week with the school’s art therapist. I loved being there and ended up staying on after graduation. Around that time, I also spent a summer as the art teacher at a camp for physically handicapped children and adults.
My intention was to become an art therapist, and although I began a graduate program, my life path took me in a different direction. Over the years, I did get to hold workshops for adults, with the goal of giving participants an opportunity for self expression that might lead to their own inner discoveries.
Now, within the next few months, my goal is to begin sharing some of the art activities I designed for myself and those that showed up in my workshops over the years. I’m excited to step back into that focus and share it here and in the Shared Easel Newsletter.