art therapy anyone?

[dminton]

I got a little watercolor set and some inexpensive paper and brushes, and have been having a blast with playing with the colors! I am getting ready for a hysterectomy and found that I was inspired to do a small piece to say "goodbye" to my uterus! It was a bit emotional but felt good and right. Does anyone else do art therapy like this? I also had fun drawing hummingbirds and practiced painting one in. Didn't turn out too bad!

[creatingkarma]

I love to paint! It is very relaxing for me! I can get all caught up in it & forget all about the world. I just wish that I had more time to do it, though. For years I've thought that once I get both my daughters in school, I would have all the time I wanted to paint. Well, they've both been in school since August & I still haven't found all this free time I was supposed to have. I'm glad you're having so much fun!

[MarthaB]

:) All sorts of craft is therapeutic for me, I'm very prone to depression, it's something I inherited from my mothers side unfortunately, but arts and crafts has definately helped me, I'm glad it's helping you too,

[Rosalie]

I worked once with a woman who was a professional 'Art therapist' She especially liked working with children as they freely poured out their emotions onto paper.

[dminton]

I wonder how one becomes an art therapist? I always thought that sounded interesting and rewarding. I suppose being a therapist first helps!

[Rosalie]

I don't know what certificates the woman had and unfortunately I don't have contact with her any more. However, I think the colleges of alternative therapies would probably run the courses.

[dminton]

I always had fond memories as a child of playing with art, and wish I had done something sooner to learn more. I always had this very practical side that went down other avenues such as nursing or business, and now it's time to play again! I just love color! I could talk about it or look at it all day long.

I wonder how one would be reimbursed as an art therapist? I think that here in the U.S., art therapy is a technique used by licensed therapists, so they are getting paid as a therapist first and foremost. But that is too long of a road for me at this point!

It's fun corresponding with you about art, Rosalie,

Diana.

[Rosalie]

I agree with you Diana. It is great to swap ideas and thoughts about artistic things.
When I was younger, I started a university course in fine arts and regret very much not finishing it. I wanted to be an art teacher hahaaa..and win the Archibald Prize for portraiture her in Oz hahhaaa. Not to be! I got into socializing and then setting up house etc etc and then along came my husband and kids etc etc etc.
The one thing I try to impress on my kids is to complete their education in whatever interests them.
One of my most vivid memories as a child was when I was about ten, my grandmother gave me a 'paint by numbers' kit. I had never painted or even drawn much before that. When I finished the picture (of a prancing pony), there was paint left over so I painted over it with my own picture. ....And then I was Hooked!

[creatingkarma]

Rosalie, I wanted to be an art teacher too! I never went to a fine arts university, but was very into art in high school. I went all the way up to ART 4 class, was in Art Club, & was the art teacher's student assistant. I wanted to go to the Art Institute when I graduated, but it cost way to much money. Then I found out how much art teachers make (not much) & decided to go to school for computer programming instead. That was a bad decision because I ended up hating programming once I got into the work field. I wish I would've followed my dream.

[dminton]

Well, girls, we are all on the same page! I was always too "practical" to "indulge" much in art and always chose the path that seemed to say "you can get a job anywhere doing this", in my case it was nursing! What a terrible mistake that was! I remember having to wait a year to get into the nursing program, and during that year I took a semester drawing class at the university. I so loved trying to capture the appearance of trees and plants and found it relatively easy to do. I kept most of the drawings from that class. It's frustrating that there aren't more ways to make a living with art. And doing something just to make money that one doesn't love doing feels like torture!

Our local university has a degree program in studio arts, art education (to be a teacher), and art history. Our community is very art oriented, too. Maybe it's time to do something for me, not what my ex-husband wanted me to do (nursing); all it did was prove that doing something not "from the heart" is bad for your health and spirit.

I do remember those wonderful paint-by-number sets! And my father always told me I should be an artist or a writer! How lucky is that?

I just enrolled in a fused glass class down at the Fire Arts Center, it meets in April. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

It's lovely chatting with you two about this. And my therapist swears that doing creative things is one of the best therapies there is; she sees it over and over with her clients. I think that for us ICers, it's very important for keeping a balance with all that unpleasantness we go through!

[Rosalie]

Diana, I agree with you about ones spirit being uplifted by art.
Have you read any of Carolyn Myss's books? 'Anatomy of the Spirit' and, Why People Don't Heal and How They Can and many more' She is a medical intuitive and she discusses how by ignoring our creative impulses, we most certainly damage our spirit and eventually our bodies.
Makes perfect sense to me.

[Kara Isabel]

I do art therapy!! Although, I have to admit.........my paintings are Awful!!! I'm scared to even show them to my kids.....they'd probably laugh! LOL.

Recently I picked up a book from Barnes and Noble called "Coloring Mandalas for healing" and have been coloring those at night. It is relaxing and gets my mind off of everything.

I make cork wreaths too! My friend owns a restaraunt and she saves wine corks, so I make all sorts of things with corks.

It's fun diggity.

[dminton]

Rosalie,

I have heard of Myss, and I think it's very interesting that you are telling me this! It makes me want to read those books and really explore what is going on. This may sound cosmic, but when I was at one of the worst periods of one of the worst nursing jobs I ever had, and when I most wanted to be learning about art and taking classes, is when my 8-year remission from IC ended and it came back much worse than before, plus shingles for the first time (a surface expression of the latent chickenpox virus, very painful). Hhmmmm...........Thank you for mentioning this!

Diana.

[dminton]

Kara Isabel -

I loved your "fun diggity"; that is a new one! It's wonderful!

I also like the idea of coloring in mandalas, sounds very soothing and I bet choosing the colors is so much fun!

Diana.

[Rosalie]

Kara, I went into the book shops web site and found the mandala books. They look lovely. I'd imagine that once coloured in they could be framed?
I'll have to look for then here. The exchange rate and postage makes them too expensive to order from Australia.

Diana, reading the Myss books changed my life. Actually my sister had the Anatomy of the Spirit on tapes made at several of Carolines lectures. She gave them to me for my husband to listen to after being made redundant from his job. But the 'universe' whatever, meant them for me to hear. Funny how these things come about isn't it?
Caroline Myss often comes out to Oz and I attended her seminar on "Sacred Contracts' a few years ago now, but she is a very compelling orator.
My ideas on creativity don't only include artwork. You know, just being creative about what you're having for dinner falls into the same catagory.
But splashing paint and paper, glue and glitter, glass and clay, whatever, is what does it for me!

[dminton]

Rosalie,

Do you really live in a place called Oz? Have you ever read Bill Bryson's travelog on his trip through Australia? He was born in the U.S. but has lived in England for some time now. It's quite humorous and he really loves Australia.

As for the Myss books, I think I will have to get ahold of one from Amazon. I have a friend who came down with some terrible illness and starting quilting to get herself through it, and has created some top-notch quilts and is on the mend from the illness to a large degree. Thanks for the affirmation of how important this stuff is.

Do you pay attention to your dreams (the ones you have as you sleep)?About once a year I have a dream that I am a very accomplished artist and they are some of the best dreams I've ever had!

Diana

[Rosalie]

Although I haven't read the Bill Bryson books, I feel as though I have. My husband is a big fan of his and has read all his books. As he reads he chuckles away and tells me about each interesting or funny thing. I have seen him interviewed and he is a very interesting and humourous man.

Haha,,, and Yes I do come from OZ, or DownUnder or as a friend of mine from Virginia recently said, from The Flip Side. She constantly makes me laugh by questioning how we manage with gravity here!
I believe that dreams contain messages that we should investigate.