Practice what you preach

While I am in school to be an art therapist, right now the schooling is just art school. Art school has many positives, but also can stunt creative thinking. ‘The rules’ applied to the elements and principles of design make you double back on choices you made on impulse or based on emotion. Art school causes you to think much more critically about your composition, and for me I have found that my intent behind the painting can get lost in all these anxieties.

How I want to help others in the future is by teaching them the raw more intuitive parts of their creative self, and how to use that to release and process past experiences. Making art can often be a process of discovery. I will start with an idea, but as I go, more things start to fall into place. I find this especially true with collage, which is a great way for those who feel nervous drawing or painting.

So, during times when I have been feeling rough, I turn to the sketchbook and just scribble in the colors that I felt that day. Even though art therapy was my original outlet into art, it doesn’t have to turn into an art career as I have made. It is just to understand yourself. And we can all understand ourselves more.