The past two semesters have been really difficult for me personally. Making art for school, work, and myself has been a powerful tool for moving forward. I’d like to explore why it was so effective, and what I can do to build on and enhance my relationship with art as therapy.

In class exercise and follow up

After class, I had a call with my close friend, a psychiatrist, Jacob. He told me a while ago about using art in his own therapy sessions as a way of subverting his tendency to analyze and intellectualize his situations ad nauseum (a tendency I share). He recommended two art therapists in Austin and offered some personal insights into why clinical art therapy, offered by a licensed therapist can be a powerful tool. We compared his experience making art in this context as compared creating on his own. 

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOSBIKvM=/

Group discussion

The group discussion was really productive, I was able to validate some of my concerns and the group came up with some really interesting new directions. Last semester for crit-ex, I took some slide photos (for an old projector) of things around my apartment that reminded me of my wife after she left. The process of capturing these moments was really important for me to own the hurt and pain that seemed to be rekindled by literally anything in the apartment if I stared at it long enough.

Sarah brought up the notion of consent as it applies to these waves of grief that crash into you. Whether it’s from a book, a smell, an intersection, or scrolling past half-watched Netflix series, those moments of loss wash over you whether you like it or not. In a way, taking those photos was me opting in, consenting to the despair and inviting myself to own it.

M brought up some questions that I think might actually shape this into a real project: how can tech aid in the morning process? What is tech’s role in loss and in therapy?

Other topics discussed:

  • The first time you do a thing you used to do with your partner is devastating, so is the second, but the third, fourth or fifth you might start to reclaim it for yourself.
  • Memories and toolkits for processing emotions. Layers of new memories start to form a scab over the raw reminders of what was and what could have been.
  • Most painful projections: the calendar, the couch, the bed. Can you soften it with exposure? – Beth