Process over Product

Remember that video game where you click on a square and it opens up more squares around it?  That is essentially what has happened to the state of my practice and Big Fat Art Cloth over the last four months. The trick of the game was to pick a square that would expand as many squares as possible.  Somewhere in the universe this year I picked a good square, and as a result I have been working hard to get things in to place so that I can accept this turn of fate.

Looking back over my blog for the past year, I realize I have spent more time writing about my garden and our effort to live sustainably and less time showing you printed textiles and oil bar with wax drawings. I have certainly spent less time discussing art therapy and theatre-of-mind topics. I've decided that I will make an effort to post more prints and have had requests to post more about the practice of printing, maybe even offering a workshop online that I've honed over the years called Pursuit of Your Image. What do you think?

I've also agreed to write more about my practice as an art therapist. I can not post art by participants due to federal confidentiality laws unless I get a consent, so we'll see, although I already have consent to show you some things from the files. Anything I post is of course done with consent, or is my own reactive artwork, otherwise I wouldn't dare post it for ethical reasons (HIPPA laws aside).

But I must talk about my garden again.  After I was accused of holding out on posting art over Christmas ale, of which I admit to having my share this season, I realized how much the textures, and colors, and just the whole process of growing something effect my artwork. I've never overtly stated that on my blog.  When I did some of my earliest training in art therapy at a womens' day shelter in a part of Chicago that is a little rough around the edges, I realized early on how important the process of making art is in healing.  That is to say, I came to understand that many of the women needed the process of watching something come to fruition more than the product of the art itself.

This is why using clay is a great medium for art therapy.  The clay keeps you coming back.  First you must work it, then you must watch it and tend to it as it dries to a certain consistency, next there is glazing, firing in the kiln, and finally after waiting for the kiln to cool, there is a final product.  There is always anticipation on how the piece may turn out as we are not master potters, and the often cracked or disappointing piece makes us realize that we have to get back to the clay table and try again.  You have to keep trying.  The bowls posted here were created by me, by hand, and while they are not artshow-worthy, they represent hours and hours of sitting at the clay table processing the scary experience of homelessness with the women.  These imperfect bowls represent the women at the shelter - and myself - continuing to click on little squares out there in the universe with the hope of expanding our opportunities and our lives.