Ars Gratia Artis

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Drawing-a-Day

2/26/10

Grant Shumate

2/28/10

Doodle

2/28/10

Doodle

2/27/10

Kristen Marshall

3/2/10

Grant Shumate

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I attended my first art therapy conference this weekend. And it was, well, amazing. I was in a room full of peers who truly understood what all this means, the art and therapy and what we all want to do with our lives. No one asking "art therapy? Is that real?". It was great.

I went to a lecture about working with individuals who label themselves as transgender. And it was an eye opener. I know a lot about it already, the language that is used, what it means to a person, all of that. What I hadn't thought about was the lack of resources for that population. During a survey almost all therapist said they would refer the client. I get that, transgender can be difficult to understand for some, but where do you refer them to? There isn't any formal training offered, and most that go into this population do so due to personal reasons. Makes me wonder if I might want to work with this population. Guess only time will tell.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Just a Little Bit of Pixie Dust

So since I am no longer a true studio major, and my art time is now art therapy time, this blog is now about both. I will add my art as I do it, and write about my life in art therapy.

My art therapy class this semester is art therapy with children, and I am excited about it. Even though I don't plan on working with children, I do love doing child-like things. I am still working on a pastel series about that thing: adults doing child things. So this class is about being able to tap into the innocence of childhood and being able to connect to the imagination of a child. As I was sitting in class this week, learning about this class will be like, all I could think about was how in-touch I still am with the Livvie of the past. It is the one thing in my life that I feel you have to keep. It allows me to find beauty in the simple, to not feel guilty for talking to my dog and thinking she knows what I am saying. This class is about the importance of remembering what it was like to have a stick that was a sword, to believe in flying cars that your aunt drives. It is going to be an amazing class.

There is something about tapping into that feeling, the feeling of excitement that only being a child can have. I find it interesting what I feel like after blowing bubbles or playing with sidewalk chalk. I feel free and at ease. It takes me back to a time when everything was easy, a time when my biggest worry was finding a lizard under a log. There are no bills, papers, or money in this world, it is just pixie dust, flying, and saving the world from Skeletor. It is important to mot lose that joy, that ability to fly. I think that something comes out when adults do this, something healing. It is that healing power of childhood that makes art therapy great, that makes it work on a deeper level. Crayons are the secret to healing.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dust?

This series is not finished yet. These are just the first two.

They Flewed!, 2009

Mr. Crocodile, do you like codfish?, 2009

Models: Meghan Jonhson, Kristen Marshall

Media: Dry Pastel

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I Am.

I have always had a fascination with personality traits, understanding them, accepting them, rejoicing in the flaws and quirks that make an individual, so it was natural for me to be drawn to portraits. When I studied the self-portraits of Durer, Rembrandt and Van Gogh I saw how each portrait showed a new aspect of the artist, showing an evolution of the art and their identity. I wanted to take a new approach to what a portrait contains, I wanted to show who the person really is and not just a physical representation.
The inspiration for this show, or at least the beginning idea, came from life. In high school I had issues with people judging me based on my appearance or just one aspect of my personality. In creating a show that literally breaks down a personality into single traits, I needed a way to convey that a person is more than just one characteristic, so the puzzle pieces became a huge part of my message.  

Each piece is a unique part of the person, a way to convey who they are and not just what the world always sees. It is the small pieces of a person that creates of a whole. With each new piece, a different aspect, a different piece of the puzzle, needed to be captured. Due to the separation of the personality, a duality is created that exists within each person. With myself I used body image as a way to possesses my own duality with my looks. The two pieces, I Am Ugly and I Am Beautiful, serve to create a tension between being beautiful and ugly. And it is in the duality that people find a balance, a balance that makes them whole.   

The casting process is used to give a life size representation to add dimension to each piece. The cast allows me to place a tangible representation of the person on each piece. The three dimensional element allows a mood and space to be created just as Edward Kienholz. The drawings that are on each piece serve to clarify aspects of the person, to add yet another element to the work. The life size drawings are the assembled whole, the person as they are seen from on a physical level.   As you take in the show, I invite you to take a look at yourself, to try and find what pieces make you a unique individual to the world.