Artwork of Soldiers Through the Last Century

An exhibit (now unfortunately over) was presented in Philadelphia regarding the art of the military while they have been away at various wars.  Although this wasn't formal art therapy, it appears to be art as therapy, and a way of documenting moments that were likely difficult to put into words.  Working in a military environment shows me that this is not new, and that art will be a longstanding need for those serving in the armed forces, as well as with their families.

Dramatic artwork by US soldiers shows a century of war through their eyes 
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 6:31 PM on 31st December 2011

Since the first Americans marched off to fight the British for independence, soldiers have been chronicling US wars with paintings and drawings that show the conflicts from the perspective of the troops on the ground. 

Here are just a few of the 1,500 works of art by servicemen and women that were on display at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia as part of their Art of the American Solider exhibition. Beginning with portrayals of trench warfare in World War I, the artworks cover every American conflict through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Some are simple displays depicting the boredom and monotony of everyday life in the military. Others show darker truths about war -- portraits of combat's stress, trauma and weariness etched into the faces of servicemen. The art also often shows the ruination that war brings to a landscape and the people around it -- burned out buildings and devastated families. 

Artistically, they run the gamut from realism to abstraction. However, most of the works tend to have more literal and less obtuse interpretations. The exhibit was launched in the fall of 2010 to coincide with American combat troops beginning to return home from Iraq. It ran until March 2011. 

Click on the picture above to see more artwork

Musicians use divergent thinking more often than non-musicians

I came across this article via a colleague and though it's a few years old, it still seems relevant. Even though the focus is specifically with musicians, I wonder if some of the same principles are true for any of the other arts as well.

Musicians use both sides of their brains more frequently than average people

Posted on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 — 4:14 PM

Supporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

The research by Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park is currently in press at the journal Brain and Cognition.

“We were interested in how individuals who are naturally creative look at problems that are best solved by thinking ‘out of the box’,” Folley said. “We studied musicians because creative thinking is part of their daily experience, and we found that there were qualitative differences in the types of answers they gave to problems and in their associated brain activity.”

One possible explanation the researchers offer for the musicians’ elevated use of both brain hemispheres is that many musicians must be able to use both hands independently to play their instruments.

“Musicians may be particularly good at efficiently accessing and integrating competing information from both hemispheres,” Folley said. “Instrumental musicians often integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece, and they have to be very good at simultaneously reading the musical symbols, which are like left-hemisphere-based language, and integrating the written music with their own interpretation, which has been linked to the right hemisphere.”

Previous studies of creativity have focused on divergent thinking, which is the ability to come up with new solutions to open-ended, multifaceted problems. Highly creative individuals often display more divergent thinking than their less creative counterparts.

To conduct the study, the researchers recruited 20 classical music students from the Vanderbilt Blair School of Music and 20 non-musicians from a Vanderbilt introductory psychology course. The musicians each had at least eight years of training. The instruments they played included the piano, woodwind, string and percussion instruments. The groups were matched based on age, gender, education, sex, high school grades and SAT scores.

The researchers conducted two experiments to compare the creative thinking processes of the musicians and the control subjects. In the first experiment, the researchers showed the research subjects a variety of household objects and asked them to make up new functions for them, and also gave them a written word association test. The musicians gave more correct responses than non-musicians on the word association test, which the researchers believe may be attributed to enhanced verbal ability among musicians. The musicians also suggested more novel uses for the household objects than their non-musical counterparts.

In the second experiment, the two groups again were asked to identify new uses for everyday objects as well as to perform a basic control task while the activity in their prefrontal lobes was monitored using a brain scanning technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, or NIRS. NIRS measures changes in blood oxygenation in the cortex while an individual is performing a cognitive task.

“When we measured subjects’ prefrontal cortical activity while completing the alternate uses task, we found that trained musicians had greater activity in both sides of their frontal lobes. Because we equated musicians and non-musicians in terms of their performance, this finding was not simply due to the musicians inventing more uses; there seems to be a qualitative difference in how they think about this information,” Folley said.

The researchers also found that, overall, the musicians had higher IQ scores than the non-musicians, supporting recent studies that intensive musical training is associated with an elevated IQ score.

The research was partially supported by a Vanderbilt University Discovery Grant.

Folley is a postdoctoral fellow. Park is a professor of psychology and psychiatry and a member of the Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience. Gibson was an undergraduate student and research assistant in the psychology department at Vanderbilt when this work was conducted and is now a Peace Corps volunteer based in Namibia. Park and Folley are Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development investigators.

Unsurprisingly, the Arts makes people happy!

I came across this article recently, and discovered that according to this data gathering, when ranked, of the top 6 activities that create the most happiness, #3-6 are all rooted in the arts - drama/theater, music, and art (viewing and creating). But of course, we already knew this! :)

Art and Happiness: New research indicates 4 out of 6 happiest activities are arts-related (!)

December 2, 2011 By Clayton Lord

Last week, an article that was actually published nearly a month ago on Chatelaine.com passed through my Facebook feed four times in two days. The article, titled “The three times people are happiest—you may be surprised,” rather vaguely discussed a research project out of the London School of Economics that was mapping happiness levels associated with various activities—and the results, per the article, indicated that, behind sex and exercise, the next most happiness-inducing activity was attending the theatre.

This landed with a big thud inside my head, as it sits so squarely next to a lot of the work we’re trying to do to understand the impacts, effects and benefits of the arts beyond the economic, so I did a little research and discovered that the project is called the Mappiness Project and it is the graduate work of an LSE researcher named George MacKerron. And I emailed him, he emailed back, and we chatted briefly.

So here’s the shocker—the Chatelaine article, and the Marie Claire article it’s based on, left out potentially the most amazing part of MacKerron’s (very preliminary) results so far. Of the top six most happiness-inducing activities, again after sex and exercise, the other four are all arts-related. They are, in descending order:

1) Intimacy/making love

2) Sports/running/exercise

3) Theatre/dance/concert

4) Singing/performing

5) Exhibition/museum/library

6) Hobbies/arts/crafts

MacKerron’s research, which relies on an iPhone app that randomly dings at you twice a day and has you take a short survey on your happiness and alertness, has garnered three million data points from 45,000 users in the UK over the last 18 months. And it’s important to point out that, of those 3 million responses, only 3,500 were in the theatre/dance/concert category (about .3%). But, and this is important, those 3,500 people who responded during or immediately after that activity were demonstrably happier. The way McKerron put it to me, “Someone at the theatre will average about 6 points happier than someone who isn’t.” (It’s on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being completely unhappy and 100 being completely happy). This, compared to someone having sex, who averages 12 points happier than someone who isn’t, and I see a new ad campaign.

MacKerron and his co-researcher/advisor, Susana Mouranto, are (at least for now) particularly looking at the impact of the environment around an individual on their happiness, and so as part of that they have attempted to control for confounding variables in an attempt to ensure that they’re actually measuring the happiness induced by the event of that moment, and not the general happiness level of the individual. In this case, MacKerron is intrigued by the theatre result in part because theatre attendance requires advance directed action (i.e. you have to buy a ticket), so that tends to mean that he feels more comfortable extrapolating that they’re happier because they’re in the theatre, and not in the theatre because they’re happier. He has more trouble with such conclusions in places like parks.

Survey responses that come in more than an hour after the solicitation are discounted in an effort to ensure that people are actually recounting their happiness levels as accurately as possible (and, at the same time, to be realistic about allowing a person to finish up (ahem) whatever activity they’re doing at the time). And so, in this way, MacKerron’s work isn’t really about long term echoes of an experience—more instant gratification than long-term emotional health. Which is in itself interesting. And, while he didn’t have the demographic data in a useable form when he chatted with me, he does have demographics on the respondents as well as relatively-accurate GPS location tracking of where people were when they responded, which spark two ideas in my head: such research has the possibility of (1) helping us better understand if our work is differently-affecting different people and (2) allowing us to actually map of particular events (or organizations) are instigating higher happiness scores in general.

All in all, MacKerron’s work, which he’s also discussed in a TEDx talk, has a lot of potential to tell us more about what role the arts play in the emotional well-being of individuals—and I can’t wait for him to begin publishing his work, which is in process.

Across all types of theatre work (see (very preliminary) graph), our research into intrinsic impact indicates that captivation (i.e. getting lost in the work and losing track of time) and emotional resonance are particularly affecting impacts with theatre.

In this sense, then, perhaps another word for captivation (especially in context with sex and exercise) might be euphoria, which Webster’s dryly defines as “a feeling of well-being or elation,” and Wikipedia more colorfully defines as “a medically recognized mental and emotional condition in which a person experiences intense feelings of well-being, elation, happiness, ecstasy, excitement and joy.”

Six points happier. Six points, I would argue, healthier. That’s awesome data, and I can’t wait to see more.

A New Meaning to Pointillist Art...

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AWESOME THING OF THE DAY: Candy Sprinkles Photography

November 30, 2011

This "photograph" isn't a photograph: it's actually a painstakingly created piece of pointillist artwork. And it's made of candy.

We spoke to Joel Brochu, the Canadian artist and student at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan who created this brilliant piece of candy art. It took him a long time - Joel spent nearly eight months placing 221,184 nonpareils sprinkles (circular candy sprinkles that are used in cake and doughnut decoration) on a four foot by 1.5 foot board using double-sided tape.

Joel didn't actually take the photograph the artwork is based on: "The photograph from which I worked was taken by Shingo Uchiyama, a Japanese photographer. I stumbled on his work when searching for the perfect image to use and absolutely fell in love with his beagle. He granted me permission to use it."

In order to go from photograph to candy mosaic, Joel ran the original pic through a computer program that breaks down images into essential colours. According to the artist, "the difficult part was matching the computer colours to the actual colours of the nonpareils", which is not surprising, since he only had six colours of candy to work with. That's right: the artwork only contains six colours. The photorealistic effect is achieved by visual colour blending when it's viewed from a distance.

And as if all that wasn't impressive enough, how about this? Joel's not even majoring in fine arts. He told us he was studying art for a few months, but decided to make a change: "I have settled on religion and Eastern philosophy, another interest I have had since childhood". It seems he's already stumbled on an effective form of meditation.

Here are some close-ups that reveal the details of Joel's work of art.

I Close My Eyes to See

Dan Rhema is the co-author of a newly published ebook about the intertwining of art and life entitled, I Close My Eyes to See.

The ebook, designed for color tablets, is now available on Apple's ibookstore, Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.

I Close My Eyes to See Synopsis

Dan Rhema, an international development worker, arrived at the hospital with his brain on fire. The three strains of dengue fever, he contracted in Mexico, had morphed into the deadly combination of meningoencephalitis—both his brain and his spinal fluid were infected. That evening, as the doctors fought to save his life, Dan left his body and began an unexpected journey to the other side.

One week later, he was released from the hospital, just not as the Dan Rhema who had entered. The near-death experience and the damage to his brain left him with gaping holes in his memory and a loss of his identity.

Dan spent most of the next three years asleep. Otherworldly visual images flowed out of his dreams. During his waking hours, a creative compulsion took over his life. He began to sculpt and paint the visions he encountered in the night.

Dan had two choices: to continue hoping that, one day, he would regain his lost memories and his old life, or to embrace the newfound creativity and follow it wherever it would lead. He chose to begin anew and follow the healing journey of the dreams.

Praise for I Close My Eyes to See

Death's pathway led him to worlds beyond this one, opening up realities quite impossible to describe.

It's almost as if your heart can "taste" what he is saying.

-- P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D., author of Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of The Story, and The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences

Dan's narrative is his art, spanning earth fire to infinite stars, mothers and fathers to searchers and beasts, light awaiting, light beyond.

His art -- his story -- ought to be seen. Heard. Experienced.

-- Mark Shepherd, Santa Monica

Senior lecturer, University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television

... as classic as a cave painting and as hip as the found objects that he assembles into magnificent images.

-- Michael Blowen, former film critic for the Boston Globe

Words seem so inadequate when it comes to describing the emotions that are stirred in viewing these works...

Marybeth Orton, MA, ATR-BC, LPAT Licensed Professional Art Therapist

... a tale for our times as wondrous as it is utterly terrifying.

-- Joe Henry, singer-songwriter and Grammy winning music producer.

... in an attempt to explain — to himself and others — what had happened to him. It turned out art was his language as well as his healer.

-- Jo Anne Triplett, LEO Magazine

... through words and art, Dan’s struggle is felt deeply and is clearly a genuine self-exploration. One does not come across such authentic pieces of art often...

-- Liz Beck, Art Therapy Blog

Day of the Dead and "Art-as-Therapy"

By:

Patricia O'Laughlin MFT, ATR

(www.patriciaolaughlin.com)

edited by: Amanda Alders

In the traditions of Day of the Dead, art making intersects with community. People come together to celebrate their deceased loved ones and create art that beautifully represents their lives. This year, I have been asked to volunteer at University of New Mexico's healthcare clinic, where I will be teaching children about self expression through creating Day of the Dead art work.

In the Art Therapy theory,"art as therapy," the process of making art is itself the therapy, and the art is not combined with traditional "talk" therapy. “Art in therapy combines creating art with talk therapy. Healing occurs through the internal expression and physical movements that happen while someone is making art. Educators and Art Therapists such as Dr. Noah Hass-Cohen draw from clinical neuroscience to show how art therapy affects the mind-body connection and in doing so lifts illnesses like depression and anxiety.

“Art as therapy,” is deeply ingrained into Day of the Dead holiday, a long standing Mexican tradition that is celebrated from October thirty-first through November second. It's a day when people remember the lives of those who have passed, and honor them with art, flowers, music, and food.

While art therapy is a fairly recent addition to the therapeutic world, people who celebrate Day of the Dead have been practicing a form of "art as therapy" for decades. They create alters for their loved ones, that in themselves are pieces of art. Within these alters are smaller pieces: statues,boxes, ceramic/wooden food, and pictures.

When creating these art pieces, the "mind-brain connection" may be activated. For some people, the materials and method they choose may cause the art making to become similar to meditation, aiding in relaxation and providing a sense of balance and stability. Others choose materials, colors, and processes that are stimulating and may help give them the passion they might not normally feel, passion that is necessary in combating sadness.

Constructing these alters also allows for the creator to think about their loved ones, life, and death. Within most cultures, the habit is to push these thoughts away, which ultimately causes anxiety and fear. But by having a time each year specificaly to celebrate the dead, people who celebrate Day of the Dead give themselves a major gift…the gift of contemplating the existential crisis of death head on.

Guest Blog: Fabric Meditation

I was honored to have a request from Allison Brooks to be a guest blogger here on "Adventures in Art Therapy." She describes herself as "very passionate about enlightening people about the benefits natural and integrative therapies can have on multiple diseases and illnesses." As a result, she wrote a very timely article on the benefits of art therapy - specifically fabric arts with quilting - with those who suffer from cancer. A little bit about Allie - she attended the University of Mississippi and earned her degree in Biomedical Anthropology. She is now studying in the field to finish an ethnography on the effects of biomedicalization on Bolivian Cultures. Please enjoy her contribution!

The Art of Therapy

How art and medicine are working together

From the dawn of man, art has been used as a way to release creativity, tell a story, decorate hallways, and maybe poke fun of an enemy. But no matter what, art is a visual or verbal way to express a person’s emotions, character, and insight; basically an extension of the artist. Even though it seems like a way to pass time, to make a gift, or continue a hobby, art is making its debut in hospitals all around the world as a way to manage stress and release feelings during cancer treatments.

Though cancer is a physical issue, it is very common for cancer patients to encounter severe emotional and psychological malaise. This is where art therapy comes into play. Dr. Josee Leclerc, who has a private practice for art therapy, states, “Art therapy really allows for an expression that words would not. The goal is to allow for emotions that are too difficult to put into works, or to use the image as a mirror or a witness of what the person is feeling, experiencing, or going through.”

The most notable of the cancer art therapies are the quilting projects. There have been multiple quilting programs in hospitals around the United States. Deborah Theriault has been facilitating quilting projects in the major cities of New Brunswick for years and stated, “This form of therapy gave them an avenue that changed their focus and spiritually took them away from their hospital beds and away from their sickness.” These quilts then go on to be a testament of their battle for survivors, and for the patients that did not survive, the quilts become a fond memory for the families.

Lin Swensson is another quilt therapist which travels to different hospitals to offer lessons. She encourages patients to either paint their stories on swatches of fabric or use pieces donated by local fabric stores. Patients find the quilting very therapeutic and often make quilts for one another. One lady, named Kate Graves, said that the quilts were “something tangible that could express far more than a get-well card.”

“Building Blocks” Kate Graves

Though this form of art therapy is not considered a form of cancer treatment, it is gaining a solid reputation as an alternative way to rehabilitate cancer patients. Many doctors recommend patients diagnosed with a low-survivability rate or aggressive cancer, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or pleural mesothelioma, to look into a form of art therapy. Even though every cancer is a serious cancer, the ones with the harsher treatments drain the person of morale quicker. Art therapy is not only an escape from the typical treatment routine, but it also improves self-esteem and gives the patient a sense of control when it seems out of reach.

Brain surgery triggers compulsive artmaking

I came across this program on TV about "Ingenious Minds," and this one particular program followed the case of a chiropractor who had to have brain surgery to unwrap blood vessels that were pinching a nerve near his ear. After some complications from the surgery, they had to remove part of his cerebellum to ease some swelling. As a result, he encountered some side effects, such as double vision, difficulty with balance, and....the compulsive need to create art. Neuroscientists are now studying his brain makeup to see how the structure of his brain is linked to creativity. Watch the episode below:

Jon Sarkin was a successful chiropractor until he suffered a brain aneurysm while golfing. While in surgery, Jon died on the table and doctors had to remove nearly half of his cerebellum to save his life. Jon couldn't walk or talk for a year and he started drawing and painting as a way to communicate.

For Jon, making art isn't an option: it's his life and his curse. Jon's condition is a rare one known as "acquired savant syndrome." Some of the world's most esteemed neurologists want to study his brain to understand his sudden compulsion to create art.

The researchers discover that Jon's brain re-wired itself after the trauma. Functions that the cerebellum usually controls (motor control, attention span) have been re-routed to the frontal lobe, which usually handles high-level functions like abstract thinking, decision-making and creativity.

Free Lecture on the Importance of Positive Emotions

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions @ GWU, Alexandria, VA

When: Saturday, Dec 3, 2011

Where: George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (map)

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions Free Lecture 

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC Rebecca Wilkinson, MA-ATR-BC 

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 11:00 Am – 12:15 Pm 

Sponsored by Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, the Potomac Art Therapy Association, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program (1.25 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*) 

 

This workshop with include a brief overview of the field of Positive Psychology, the science of happiness. We will focus most in depth on the contributions of Barbara Fredrickson in her work on Positive Emotions and their ability to broaden perception and build resilience. The evolutionary function of negative and positive emotions will be explored. We will examine art therapy’s role in promoting positive emotions. Art Therapy interventions for increasing positive emotions will be explored. 

 

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to list two characteristics of Positive Psychology. 

Objective 2) Attendees will be able to describe Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory of positive emotions. 

Objective 3) Attendees will be able to list three ways that art therapy promotes positive emotions in our clients. 

 

Held at the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. To register call 202 352 5225. Facilities are handicap accessible. Creative Wellbeing Workshops is co-sponsor of this event with the Potomac Art Therapy Association (NBCC provider #6500) and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. The Potomac Art Therapy Association may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. Creative Wellbeing Workshops and the Potomac Art Therapy Association and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program maintain responsibility for the content of this event.

A New Tack on Modern Art!

Art Gallery Cleaner Unknowingly Scrubs Artwork

In the world of art in general...

Art Gallery Cleaner Destroys Artwork worth $1,118,000

There's a lot to be said for keeping a space clean and tidy. But when that space happens to be an art gallery, you have to be careful what you're sanitizing. An overzealous cleaner at a German gallery found that out the hard way when she ruined a sculpture valued at €800,000 (CAD$1,118,650) because she thought it was dirty.

The artwork, which was created by German artist Martin Kippenberger who died in 1997, was called 'When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling'. It featured a rubber trough placed under a wooden tower, with paint inside the trough meant to represent dried rainwater. The cleaner obviously thought it was just dirt, and managed to remove it all with a scouring brush.

This isn't the first time a work of art has been mistaken for something that needs to be cleaned up. In 2001, an installation by British artist Damien Hirst was swept up and thrown away by a cleaner at the Eyestorm gallery. Of course in that case, the "art" in question was a room full of ashtrays, half-filled coffee cups, empty beer bottles and newspapers, so the cleaner could be forgiven. The artist himself found the whole thing "fantastic. Very funny."

Other artworks have been lost or damaged this way, including a so-called "grease stain" by Joseph Beuys which was apparently valued at about $557,000, and a work by artist Gustav Metzger at the Tate gallery in Britain that included - you guessed it - a bag of trash. Apparently the old saying/cliché is true: one man's trash really is another man's treasure.

That pretty much explains it....

Ancient art supplies found in South African cave

October 13, 2011 — WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers in South Africa have discovered what may have been the world's earliest artist's studio. A 100,000-year-old workshop used to mix and store the reddish pigment ochre has been discovered in Blombos Cave on the rugged southern coast near Cape Town. At the same site, scientists have found some of the earliest sharp stone tools, as well as evidence of fishing.

The latest find is reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science. It includes pieces of ochre, grinding bowls, shells for storage and bone and charcoal to mix with the pigment. Lead researcher Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen, Norway, said the find represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human mental processes.

The ochre could have been used for painting, decoration and skin protection, according to the researchers. The discovery shows that even at that time "humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices."

Two separate tool kits for working ochre were found at the site, the researchers said. Henshilwood, who is also affiliated with the South Africa's University of Witwatersrand, said in a statement that researchers believe that pieces of ochre were rubbed on rock to make a fine red powder, and that was mixed with crushed bone, charcoal, stone chips and a liquid. The mixture was put into abalone shells and stirred with a bone.

SoulCollage® and Art Therapy

After seeing Seena Frost speak at the AATA conference in Sacramento (2010), was looking forward to learning how the SoulCollage® technique worked, but all the trainings are out of state. Thankfully, PATA is hosting a workshop this month:

October 22, 2011 11:00 AM-1:00 PM

Karen Baer, MA, ATR-BC sponsored by Potomac Art TherapyAssociation (PATA) and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program.

(2 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)

Workshop will be held after the October PATA Board Meeting held 10:00 -11:00 AM. The meeting agenda is posted on the PATA website.

The Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA is an approved NBCC provider (#6500).

For more information about the workshop and to view the objectives please visit the PATA website. www.potomacarttherapy.org

"Absent" and Art Therapy

A documentary called "Absent" - which covers the epidemic of absentee fathers (not just physically, but emotionally and mentally) and its effects on their children through interviews - came to my attention. I thought it would relate well with my adolescent clients, so I showed it in one of my art therapy groups and then had them create art in direct response to it. It appeared to have a powerful reaction as they reflected in art and shared with the other group members. The group members gave me permission to share their art and reflections anonymously (click here to see them). This is a great film to share in your practice with those clients who can relate to this topic, and pairing the processing with art can really start a dialogue to work through this difficult issue.

Art therapy program helps people with physical disabilities

It's nice to see art therapy being used - and highlighted - in my hometown of Tulsa!

Melissa Dickerson joined the Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges

for physical therapy three years ago and stayed for the art programs.

MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

by: MIKE AVERILL World Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 04, 2011

10/4/2011 9:17:25 AM

Melissa Dickerson discovered the therapeutic side of art by chance.

Because of her multiple sclerosis, Dickerson went from being able to walk to using a wheelchair and is now somewhere in between, relying on her chair most of the time. Three years ago her neurologist recommended that she go to the Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges for physical therapy, something her insurance wouldn't cover.

"I came for the physical therapy and stayed for the art," she said.

The nonprofit center offers a wide range of wellness, recreational programs and rehabilitative services for people with physical challenges. About 40 students participate in a variety of arts programs, said Janice Bawden, a visual arts instructor. "It adds meaning to life. That's especially important with people with physical challenges because they may not be able to participate in activities as they had in the past," Bawden said.

The center's art programs include art history, painting, sculpting, stained glass, ceramics and open studio time. Dickerson, who had never painted before going to the center, spends about four days a week working on art projects. Without the program, "a lot of my friends here would be staying at home having a pity party," she said. "You feel worse and worse when you focus on what feels bad. This program really means a lot to me."

The students' works of art are displayed in the studio and are for sale. The art is also sold at the center's annual Holiday Mart and area arts festivals. "When you're on a fixed income, it's nice to have that little extra money to go out and eat," Dickerson said. "When you can't work for a living, you start feeling kind of worthless. "It's nice to feel worthwhile again," she said.

One of the newest programs at the center is "neurobics," a brain fitness and training class using Posit Science software that focuses on two separate areas: auditory and visual. The different exercises help with working memory, concentration and alertness. "It helps with brain plasticity, opening new pathways," said Margie Crossno, program and volunteer services coordinator. "The program really helps our members who have suffered a stroke, head injury or trauma." Crossno said it can help with remembering sequences and make it easier to carry on a conversation.

The class is getting positive feedback. "I really like it. For me it's really challenging," Victoria Baker said. "I like the challenge." Baker was in a motorcycle accident when she was 19 and suffered a traumatic brain injury, said her mother, Rhondelle Blankenship. "She has a lot of physical handicaps but feels trapped inside her brain," Blankenship said. Blankenship said she moved her daughter here from Colorado just for the programs at the center and called the effect it has had on the 27-year-old "amazing." "She was deeply depressed. Now she's made friends, her attitude has changed and she's excited to come here every day," she said. "Even my attitude has changed."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the center

The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges, 815 S. Utica Ave., has enabled thousands of people with disabilities to increase their physical capabilities since opening in 1957.

Qualification for membership:

• A person's primary disability must involve a mobility, dexterity or sensory impairment.
  
• The person must have sufficient functional capabilities to participate independently in center activities.
  
• If a person needs assistance while participating in activities, he or she must provide his or her own personal assistant.
  
  

Annual membership and class fees are based on a sliding scale.

For more information, call 918-584-8607 or go to tulsaworld.com/tulsacenter

So, what if Dr. Kevorkian had art therapy.....?

Dr. Jack Kevorkian's art,

belongings to be sold

September 30, 2011 — DETROIT (AP) — Paintings, writings and the iconic blue sweater of assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian are going up for auction, his attorney and close friend said Friday.

Lawyer Mayer Morganroth said the late pathologist's artwork and items will be sold in late October at the New York Institute of Technology. Scheduled for auction are more than 20 paintings, Kevorkian's art kit and the sweaters he became known for donning during his high-profile assistance in the suicides of dozens of people in the 1990s.

Many of the paintings depict death or dying, and are often intended to provoke or disturb. One of those up for auction is entitled "Genocide," and features a bloody head being dangled by the hair and held by the hands of two soldiers. One wears a German military uniform from World War II and the other a Turkish uniform from World War I.

Morganroth said Kevorkian wanted to depict the mass killings of Armenians and Jews during World I and World War II, respectively. The doctor was of Armenian descent. "Just looking at it, you can say (it's) grotesque," Morganroth said. "They were to make a point, like any art."

CBS Detroit first reported the auction plan. Morganroth said he doesn't know the value of the collection but most of the proceeds will go to Kevorkian's sole heir — a niece — and the charity Kicking Cancer for Kids. Morganroth said the timing was right to sell the items, since there was interest from several auction houses and the broader art world, as well as a desire to settle the estate.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment with the New York Institute of Technology. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999, and was released from prison in 2007. He died in June at the age of 83.

Suburban Detroit art gallery owner Anne Kuffler, who has twice displayed Kevorkian's work and sells signed and numbered lithographs of six of his works for $500 apiece, said she was offered $100,000 for one of his original paintings during the first exhibit of his work in 1994. Kuffler, owner of the Ariana Gallery in Royal Oak, suspects that the value has only increased since then.

"I had several orders for his prints this morning," she said. Kuffler recalled an argument with Kevorkian, who painted the frame of "Genocide" with his own blood and wanted to have a skeleton with an IV flowing through it next to the painting.

"He said, 'I want to show how horrible it is, I want people to be upset by it,'" Kuffler said. "I said, 'If you haven't portrayed it in your painting, then you haven't succeeded.'" Many of the paintings have been hanging at the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Mass., which also has a collection of his compositions and writings. Kevorkian was also a keen musician and composer.

"I think the legacy is showing the many facets of him and his capabilities," Morganroth said. "He was a multi-talented man."

11/06/11 Workshop Visual and Experiential DBT

Registration is now open for our November 6 workshop on Visual and
Experiential Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Martha Dyer, ATR-BC and
Elizabeth McElhinny Hayden, LCSW will be coming up from North Carolina
to present their integrated approach to using DBT. Please click on the
link below for more information on this event and to register to
reserve your spot. We're very excited about this event and hope to see
you there. Please email abechtel@sheppardpratt.org if you have any
questions.

http://tinyurl.com/matanov6

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions Workshop

                                                  Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA-ATR-BC

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

11:00 Am – 12:15 Pm

Board Meeting Held at 10:00 Am

Sponsored by the Potomac Art Therapy Association, Creative Wellbeing Workshops, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program

 (1.25 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)

the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program

Held at GW at 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA  22314

This workshop with include a brief overview of the field of Positive Psychology, the science of happiness.  We will focus most in depth on the contributions of Barbara Fredrickson in her work on Positive Emotions and their ability to broaden perception and build resilience. The evolutionary function of negative and positive emotions will be explored.  We will examine art therapy’s role in promoting positive emotions.  Art Therapy interventions for increasing positive emotions will be explored.

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to list two characteristics of Positive Psychology.

Objective 2) Attendees will be able to describe Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory of positive emotions.

Objective 3) Attendees will be able to list three ways that art therapy promotes positive emotions in our clients. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Potomac Art Therapy Association (NBCC provider #6500) Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program.  Potomac Art Therapy Association may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements.  Creative Wellbeing Workshops and the Potomac Art Therapy Association maintain responsibility for the content of this event.