Artistic Expression
These are some works of art that were created within an art therapy session. These works of art have captured a feeling or an emotion that may lie deep within a person with EBD. Art therapy sessions allow for people to communicate through art by making works of art such as lines drawings, self-portraits, collages, figural drawings, paintings, story-telling, scribbles, words or phrases, and maybe even through photography the techniques and medium are endless. Emotional or behavioral issues may be brought up, touch upon, elaborated, discovered, described, or maybe even remain hidden, but the overall all goal remains the same and that is to get people talking. Talking about their fears, aggression, feelings, emotions, and/or anger. These are some examples and art made while in an art therapy session and the stories and emotional distress behind them.
My Monster Has A Name
These works of art belong to a woman who was born in 1980, from a woman who was a prostitute and stripper. She was struggling with drug abuse, while being a sociopath and schizophrenic and if that is not bad enough she was infected with a sexually transmitted disease. The woman who wrote this blog was never introduced to her real father because her "mom" had no idea who the father was. When this woman was a young girl she suffered from emotional problems due to her family life and her tragic horse riding accident, where she broke her femur. Her accident left her in a coma and a full body cast. While in the hospital her "mother" gave up on her and from all she knows she was sold to her so called step-father, who ended up sexually abusing her. She then suffered from disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder, bi-polar, anxiety disorder, body dysmorphia. Her emotional stress and traumatic life is what lead her to art therapy. Follow her story by clicking the link below:
The Anxiety Process
Following is an outline of the six different parts of this drawing. These pieces are in order of how anxiety usually unravels for me:
- Black-centered explosion – feelings in my stomach. The black oval is the black hole that leads to depression
- Spiky tangled scarfs – tensed muscles
- Mountain/shoulder symbol, lips and sweat – this symbol represents many things, in this instance my shoulders. It also represents mountains, i.e. Arizona to me. The mouth represents me chewing on my lower lip, which I do when I am anxious or concentrating
- Yellow head with thought bubble – thoughts; usually about what ever is causing me anxiety. Sometimes, at other times, unconscious thoughts that either help to calm me or exasperate the situation
- Tangled scarfs – untwisting muscles
- Loose scarf – I told my therapist, “ I become like a scarf,” meaning that my muscles then relax, completing a return to my ‘normal’ state
Unreality
This was a response to my therapist asking me to draw the “unreality” that I had been having trouble with at the time. I had explained to her that I sometimes did not feel alive, or real. I would say now that at these moments I feel like a marionette doll or like a Sim controlled by somebody else. This was especially happening while driving. All of a sudden I would get this feeling and then become very afraid that I was going to crash, so I would pull over to calm down, and the feeling would pass. Sometimes it would pass before I could pull over. But it happens others times to, such as when I am taking a shower.
For some reason, and especially when I am having trouble with memory flooding and flashbacks, it is triggered for me to take a shower (I know why, I just have not gotten to the abuse memories associated with it yet). It happens almost everyday now, for the last two weeks. I just feel like I am watching myself and there is a broken tape in my head repeating, “This is not happening, this did not/could not happen.” I eventually recover and ‘snap back’ to reality and move on with my day.
Vicky Barber's: Group Art Therapy Art Work
"The group pictures begin with choosing a place to work, the shape and the medium. Each person is encouraged to voice preferences or even abhorrence.
What is acceptable becomes apparent, not usually quickly. Once the paint has touched we are focused, we move around each other to reach the spaces we are drawn to... the marks we leave are a record of a curious intimate dance of strength, dominance, respect, mutual interest, distress and amusement."
What is acceptable becomes apparent, not usually quickly. Once the paint has touched we are focused, we move around each other to reach the spaces we are drawn to... the marks we leave are a record of a curious intimate dance of strength, dominance, respect, mutual interest, distress and amusement."
"Painting is something that I really enjoyed doing but I was always disturbed emotionally by it. With art therapy I would like to become like a child painting. The experience of group painting was amazing. In the beginning, I was shy and frightened but after a few times I started to enjoy it, moving from my safe corner to the stranger territory of the others. I tried to communicate with the group, putting something of mine in the different creations. When a girl in the group started to be aggressive with her actions I didn't understand the reason for her behaviour, but I think that she gave a good impulse to all workers (I tried to modify the colour that she splashed on the paper)."
"Working on group painting was different depending on my mood on the day. An interesting experience and mostly enjoyable in a way. I felt I had to hold back somewhat because I didn't want to "step on anyones toes" but part of me felt like I needed to leave my mark in a positive way. Preconceived ideas of things hindered me in expressing myself freely."
Works Cited & Credible Sources:
International Art Therapy Research collaborates with art therapists and other researchers to document the challenges and issues within this field.
