November 8, 2010

Working with client's that are feeling frustrated... 

            When giving a client an art directive, an art therapist should take into account what the client likes and is interested in. If the therapist doesn’t take these things into consideration when choosing an art directive for a client there is a very good chance that the client will become frustrated and maybe even refuse to participate in the desired activity. However, client’s that are in need of art therapy may just get frustrated with the idea of performing art; therefore, no matter what directive is chosen, they’re going to get anxious at the idea which can lead to frustration.

            When working with a client that is feeling frustrated and anxious, it is important for the art therapist to stay calm and not reflect the feelings of their client. If both the therapist and the client are frustrated, it will be pretty much impossible for anything positive to come out of the session. I think that it is important for the therapist to never force their client to participate in an art directive if it is not something that they want to do. Art should be something that the client wants to do or at least isn’t negative about in order for it to reflect their feelings and what is going on with their life.

            When we were given the art directive in class to write down the first thing that came to my head when I think of the word “yellow” and then write down things that describe that word and draw whatever the word was, I got really frustrated. When I thought of the word “yellow” I wrote “Big Bird” because that was the first thing that came to my mind. So, when I went to describe it I was at a lost for words and was very frustrated with myself that I couldn’t think of more than three things that described Big Bird. I think that doing this activity really helped me understand how it would feel to be a client that didn’t like the directive given to them by the therapist. I wanted the therapist to help me more with the directive, but I also understand that it would have hindered the purpose of the project.

            When working with a client that is feeling frustrated with the directive given to them I think that the most important thing is for the therapist to not let them give up.

November 1, 2010

Title: "Bad Art Therapist!"

Medium: 8 1/2" x 11" Paper and Pencil

First of all sorry this is side ways I couldn't figure out how to rotate it! Our assignment this week was to draw an unethical situation that an art therapist may get involved in. When I was thinking of what to draw I tried to put myself in the shoes of a client that is seeing an art therapist and I wanted to think of something that would really make me angry if it was done to me; therefore, I drew an art therapist showing a client's artwork to one of their friends and making fun of it. The therapist is on the right and has a speech bubble that reads, "Can you believe what my client drew today!?" and his friend is laughing while saying, "Oh my God, what a freak! Is he retarded or something!?" As an art therapist this is one of the absolute worse things that I think someone could do. To take someone else's work and make fun of that person for something that they made in a session is extremely unethical to me. 

October 25, 2010

Title: "Pre-schematic Stage Drawing"

Medium: 8 1/2" X 11" Paper and Crayons

When I thought about doing a pre-schematic drawing I didn't think it would be very difficult. I thought that since my drawing skills are far beyond that of a 4 year old I would be able to do this no problem, but once I started I realized that it would be because my drawing skills are more advanced than the pre-schematic stage the drawing was harder to complete. I used my left hand instead of my right so that I would have poor line quality, but even still I had to intentionally mess up a times. I thought it was fun to do this because it reminded me of when I was young and I would have to try really hard to color inside the line and now I had to try not to. 

October 18, 2010

Title: "Sad Sundays"

Medium: Canvas and Paint

From what I know about the artwork of those suffering with depression, this is my interpretation of what an art piece of someone with depression would look like. I used lots of dark colors and little effort when doing this piece because I didn't want to over analyze the work and instead focus on the way the piece was making me feel. I think this piece helped me to understand a bit more about letting feelings out when working on art instead of focusing on precision. 

October 11, 2010

Title: "My Best Friend"

Medium: White 4" x 6" Paper and Pencil

Peanut butter is to jelly,

Just as Courtney is to Kelly. 

The perfect pair, it's easy to see,

I love her and she loves me.

We met in Kindergarden, and we've had our fights,

yet, 16 years and we're still this tight.

A friend like this is hard to find,

so we'll stand by each other 'til the end of time.

October 4, 2010

Title: "Leah McNaughton, PPAT"

Medium: 18" x 24" Paper and markers

I had my brothers girlfriend do the Person Picking an Apple from a Tree test for this homework assignment. Having someone I know so well conduct the experiment while I acted like the therapist was somewhat strange because she felt like I knew what everything meant and was analyzing her work while she did it, but really I wasn't too sure what to look for; however, this did lead me to realize that it is probably not the best idea to be a therapist for someone you know because it will be hard for them to view you that way when they already see you as a friend. Although I'm not 100% sure on what to look for when analyzing a PPAT test, here's some of the things I noticed in hers. Her lines are very sporadic and none of them actually make a connection with the trunk of the tree. Her person has a bit of a "rubber arm" issue, but I do see that he actually was successful in retrieving his apple from the tree. Conducting this experiment was fun, and has intrigued me to learn more about the PPAT test. 

September 27, 2010

Title: "Coastin'"

Medium: Canvas and paint

Find an object and make an art piece with it? This assignment really through me a curve ball but once i started brain storming i came up with some pretty good ideas and this was the winner! These sunglasses are from St. Patty's Day last year when one of my friends broke them and left them at my house - they've been floating around my room since then. Everyday for the past few weeks I've walked past these ear buds in the parking lot of my complex, so i figured i could clean them off and incorporate them into my piece. So here it is, my found art piece, hope you like it!

PS: I named it "Coastin'" because that is the song i was listening to when i came up with this idea.