Art Today

I was in group last night and we worked on art therapy approaches to containment. Our first task was to draw something that takes our attention, and then the next step was to draw a border or container around it. I have done this technique one on one with a counsellor before and find it helpful. I like to draw pretty urns around whatever pesky thing I've purged onto the page, and then draw a lid on it :)

The truly wonderful thing about working in groups, however, is all of the unique perspectives that are brought to the room. A fellow member took the instructions in reverse, and drew her family and then drew a protective border around them. Instead of trapping the noise and keeping it in something, she created a barrier to keep the noise away. I was really struck by this. So I turned it into a personal art project. (Art Every Day!)

I visualized everything in my life that I am grateful for, and the achievements and progress I've made. All of the things that I want to keep protected and buffered. I pictured building something around them, to be a shelter from the negative energy that can sometimes blow us down, scramble our work, and scrape at our doors and windows trying to take back what we've earned. And now I'm working on a way to represent that on paper.

Here's what I accomplished today...

Finding my images, words, symbols

Laying it out

Gluing down the base, which probably would have been better to do before laying everything out :)

Final stage, for today. I've created a soft buffer between the (soon to be) hard border and the objects of my affection and protection. Exhausted and happy.

More to come...