Art Therapy. Tips? Interested?

[8888]

I used to go to art therapy and it helped me.

I don't do art too much any more, I should do it more often.

 

[Laycee]

Thank you both so much @Friday and @Lola Nocheprieta.
Friday,
I do switch it up especially when I have a little extra $. I was not ready for pen drawings yet early this year but it was all I had to work with. I used some online color stuff.... I'm admitting I used the Disney site once to see if I could connect to my 'inner child'?.. I hate how much it helped lol.. Omg I feel so gross for admitting such a thing..
I had a coloring app on the phone too while waiting to afford the crayons.

Lola,
I've been thinking about showing some, but I don't know what to show really... I'll try :)

 

[Chiqui]

I am a former artist and graphic designer. I was good at it. Good marks and good job, later. After my ptsd could only doodle as a two years old toddler. Even I hardly could do any legible handwriting for years...I have been recovering for 8 years now. So I understand very well the disheartening feelings of I lost it forever. But... I started to draw again. Very slowly I can see I am improving and moving on. I don't worry anymore if I will regain those skills. I know now I can gain my own new way of expresing myself, making the trauma inclusive. And I am happy with it. Keep going would be my advice. I hope my experience can help somehow.
Love. María.

 

[Laycee]

@MariaY ,
Thank you for being honest and also for putting the effort back into art.
I'm researching art therapy outside my schooling and am only finding techniques that I can't use in any positive way.. like scribble expressing emotions that bother you. I'm weird about waste, honestly down to each crayon stroke. If it's not making a legitimate art piece then I feel like I'm just a waste of money and time and effort.

 

[Chiqui]

@MariaY ,
Thank you for being honest and also for putting the effort back into art.
I...

I have taken some art therapy classes and sessions in the past. But I ended dissapointed with them. Mainly because the teachers didn't know how to deal with ptsd (I wasn't aware then I have it) So, the results were something like myself dissoriented and lost in pain for weeks. I wouldn't let anyone without the right professional competence to be near me now. So, I decided to do it by myself, going back to the tradicional art teaching. Much better.
About making art pieces and waste...I had to overcome that too. I understood I needed help and I was responsible of helping myself, in order to get out of that pain. Hope this helps. Love. María.

 

[MoonOwl]

As a child my escape was drawing. It got me through a lot of traumatic events. I remember laying on my bedroom floor drawing while the war raged on downstairs. Consequently, I guess I came to associate my art as therapy - a safe place.

Unfortunately, a by-product of my early life was that I didn't get to pursue this as my life's work professionally. I always counted this as a personal failure/negative until I had the opportunity to work with other artists as a plein air painter.

I was so intimidated by their degrees and educations in the arts until I worked with them as individuals. I found myself counseling them!! Most of them had become so self conscious as artists. Academia had so abused the "little artist" that lived inside them in favor of a very strict set of rules and asthetic goals that they had been robbed of the joy of self expression! Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from them and I know that if you are serious about art, you need to know the rules if only to be able to abandon them intelligently.

I realized that my teacher was a child who only saw the joy in art - the complete absorption in the moment of creation. I had been "taught" by her to make art for art's sake and not for the ego hit that a "perfect" finished product might provide.

To really enjoy making art, the ego must step aside and let the soul have at it! You have to be willing to suck!

During my "intimidation" stage, I began to compare my wildly colorful and expressive paintings to my fellow artists. I loved the paintings of the realists who could reproduce a scene in almost photo detail - they were a wonder to behold! I so wanted to paint like that but when I tried, I felt constricted and stressed. I finally had to accept that that would never be my style. My style is different. Not "worse," not "better," just different. Compare Van Gogh to Rembrandt.

One day, while alone in a field, I began to relly feel a connection to the glorious nature around me. I just painted that. I painted a conversation between myself and the trees. I painted the dappled sunlight on the tall grass. I painted the expanse of blue sky and tiny field flowers. I realized that the secret is to let go and paint in communion with your subject - to get out of your head and accept what is.

The big draw for me is the fact that my art allows me to be in the moment. I can act as a channel for what comes through me - it's become a spiritual practice. One that allows me to let go of past traumas and future fears.

 

[Laycee]

@MoonOwl ,

Thank you for that. Interested in sharing some pics? I'm going to start though I don't have much to show yet. I'm also struggling with just the 'what' do I draw or make, what colors do I use, etc... I guess every thought being 2nd guessing everything is a problem.

 

[Changing4Best]

I was a professional artist for my career, so I officially retired. My hands are arthritic and neuropathic and don't cooperate well. My sister bought me an adult coloring book. I made one mistake on one of the pieces and have not touched it since.

In the mental hospital, we made bird houses, painted them actually, as part of our therapy. I was in there for a drug induced manic episode, so I was up for anything that would take my mind of the huge hospital bill I knew would be headed my way. (I was in there for 8 days). Still paying that bill, will be for years, even though I have insurance.

Anyway, I saw some erasable colored pencils at Walmart and that caught my eye. Erasable? Never saw that in colored pencils before, so I bought them for a young artful friend of mine for Christmas. Then I got to thinking. Would I like some for me? I sort of do. Maybe I would even like a Sketchbook. So I might mosey on over to Walmart after the holidays and buy myself some. Maybe.... if I can erase, I can make mistakes, like the rest of the human race! I don't have to be "perfect."

 

[I_will_recover]

I posted the following on a different thread last week:

Perhaps mandalas. I print them for free and just color.
You can google mandalas and then go to images, print and color. It's free.

It is life changing but it helps keep my mind busy at when I'm overwhelmed or having flashbacks.

 

[EmmaOwl]

it helps keep my mind busy at when I'm overwhelmed or having flashbacks.

I wish they did for me. Instead they tend to be an "afterwards" project...by the time I get everything together, including choosing exactly the "right" picture (whatever that means in my head), I no longer want to do it.
That's depression I guess.

You know. I make it way more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[I_will_recover]

I wish they did for me. Instead they tend to be an "afterwards" project

I didn't read my post before I posted. I actually meant to say it's NOT life changing it's just a distraction. I actually don't "like" it per say and almost always have a hard time getting started but a couple of minutes in my mind shuts off. Also, I never finish them in one sitting.

I hope this helps. If not (even if so) I offer you an internet hug if you are able to accept them :hug:

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Art in every form is theraputuc, regardless of the reason or intent.

So an art class for the intent of learning about art or how to paint in oils, for instance, is theraputic. Written words such as poems and songs and other written word is art and also theraputic. Coloring in a child coloring book with crayons or an adult coloring book with color pencil is theraputic. Crafting such a crochet, knitting, needle point, and my new soon to be hobby, making my own paracord stuff: Easy Paracord Projects is theraputic.

And even building a lego land from scrap with just blocks is theraputic. Something I also do. Not the kits but piles of just blocks and hindges and I am off to make something.

There are MANY things that are art. Don't close your mind to just pencil to paper (or crayon to paper) and dab around some of this stuff until you find one you love and that is soothing and theraputic. You must love the art you do or it isn't worth doing. No point in it.

There are also instructions for beginners for all of these on the internet. And it doesn't even begin to list everything inside of art. Just the few off the top of my head. You can find an art therapist but why when you can do it on your own and get the same benifit? That's just my opinion though.

ETA: Oragami, also art, and also theraputic.