paint cut paste

the idea of the process arts is one that i can get behind wholeheartedly. simply, it means “the practice of various modalities of self-expression for the purpose of process rather than product.” a lot of us moms, teachers, or caregivers who make art with kids (and many artists) tout this process over product concept. as an art therapist, it has been a big part of my work with clients, as well as the way i approach my own art and making art with my daughter. so i thought we’d delve into a little process painting together…

according to process arts expert, stuart cubley, “process is the actual doing, the experience in the moment. it is the journey into the unknown without assumption. it is being open to a larger dimension than the limited agendas of the mind. It is being there fully – in presence…

…the essence of the process arts work is freedom. it is about climbing out from under the demanding attitudes that enslave us, where we believe we can only be happy in an imagined future with an imagined outcome.”

in this spirit, and over the course of several days, N and i applied color (acrylic paint) to canvas together. we listened to music – one of our favorites for painting is ann licater’s flute music (which N asks for quite often when making art.) we chatted happily. we painted quietly and listened to the brush strokes, which were often rhythmic with all of these little dots and things happening on the canvas. we painted outside and listened to the birds, the wind, the people passing by on the sidewalk. we watched the painting unfold.

we approached the canvas with the agreement that our marks would likely eventually come into relationship, touching and overlapping, and that over the course of a few days, things would get covered over with layers of paint. we agreed not to “try to make something” rather just to enjoy the experience of the paint. i was intentional in the way i painted freely, so that i could model for N how it might be to watch the images shift and move. i was hoping (hypothesizing) that it might not only be freeing for her to make art in this way, but that it’s quite organic for a child…

um, not necessarily so at age four, at least for my kiddo. she became quite attached to certain images, so watching them change or overlap later became emotional. (many of the images she became attached to were ones i had made on the canvas, and when i tweaked them over painted over them, she got upset.)

this was such a rich opportunity to discuss process, and while staying within the metaphor of the art in our conversation, a deeper meaning of the discomfort of uncertainty, the idea of change, and of things being temporary was able to be worked through together and held or contained in a safe way in the art. gosh, i love art therapy.

next time, we’ll each get our own canvases — then i’ll see what develops. my guess is that it’ll be a whole different ballgame, but i wonder what might happen. on his web site, stuart cubley writes: “the process arts are uniquely effective in facilitating the inner imperative because they are:

• non goal oriented: they do not depend on a stereotype or formula.
• non-rational: they rely on greater reality than logic
• unpredictable: they face us immediately with the unknown
• transformative: they remove us from habitual patterns of behavior
• insight producing: they stimulate a more comprehensive perception
• freeing: they expose the restricting ways of the inner critic”

documenting changes during the process with her own camera

go forth and trust the process.

let me know what unfolds…

as spring has just sprung, i’ve had nests on my mind. we’ve often done spring crafts involving nests and birds, but one of my favorite nesting projects is one that was done while N was still in utero, in the fall of 2006. a handful of my dearest friends created this nest with me and my husband at our blessingway ceremony. the nest still graces my daughter’s bedroom today.

as i’ve blogged about just a bit, a mother’s blessing ceremony or blessingway ceremony can be done in addition to or in lieu of a baby shower. the intention behind a blessing ceremony is to honor the mom-to-be (and/or the dad-to-be!) as they cross the threshold into parenthood.

three of my girlfriends from our art therapy graduate program and one of our closest guy friends held a two-day long ceremony such for us, during which we did several art and pampering rituals they planned — seven different rituals, to be exact. one of which was the blessing nest. we began by each meditating on the baby who was about to come into the world (N!) and the blessings we have for her life.

then we selected from a collection of beautiful ribbons and thin strips of lovely papers, and wrote our blessings on them with glittery pens.

we read the blessings aloud to each other, and to the little one listening from my belly.

my beautiful friend sharing one of her blessings

my friends had purchased a lovely twig nest, which she brought for us to weave our blessings through. (of course, you could create your own nest from local sticks, twigs, and twine.)

we had a wonderful time threading the ribbons and papers between the twigs, using a glue gun to secure their positions, while talking about this little person who was about to come into the world.

we added some green moss into the bed of the nest, to later hold the precious stones, rocks, and hand-painted (by N) eggs it now carries.

this beautiful nest is one of the most special keepsakes from my pregnancy, and it is infused with so much love for N from dear, sweet friends and from her mommy and daddy.

i recently chanced upon this inspirational photo of these lovely sticks by an artist named ginette lapalme.

ginette's sticks

we had some sticks and driftwood hanging around our backyard, just waiting to become art materials… and i’d been thinking on it for a few days. i’m also reading a book on the shamanic tradition of holding council, which involves a talking piece – usually a stick. i’ve been dreaming about finding and embellishing a talking stick for my family and also for my work with clients. then blamo! – this picture finds me. the internet is so cool like that – providing serendipitous encounters and answers. anyway, the fire was lit under me, so i showed N the photo to share the fire, and we gathered up our things: sticks, acrylics, brushes, palette, water jar, rag.

perhaps sticks we had won’t necessarily become future talking sticks, but i set out without that intention – just wanting to enjoy art for art’s sake and the fun of painting whimsical stripes and such on a natural canvas. while i worked on a big stick, N had so much fun with the smaller ones.

she talked all the while about how she’d never done this before, and how she loves all of the new art ideas i come up with for us to do — how sweet to hear! (incidentally, she told me i am the best artist in alaska… which was flattering and all, but we’ve never even been there. ) it was a playful art-making session.

N's "ocean sparkle" stick

when working with natural materials, i like to (and this may get too woo-woo for some of you, but bear with me) have a dialog with the stick, rock, shell, etc. about what it would like to become. i feel like nature’s form really can dictate the lines, shapes, and colors, if we mindfully engage with it, observe, listen, and trust our instincts about the artistic choice we are making. i did this as i worked on painting my sticks, and i introduced this concept to N as we painted. children are such absolute naturals when it comes to creating such a dialog, storyline, conversation – they are not self-conscious and are so genuinely connected to nature, so it comes easily. as adults, we have often lost that ability, and work to reclaim it.

the collection (sticks and stones)

besides having tons of fun together, the visual results were magical.

my "heart chakra" driftwood

the most magical aftermath of all…

our artist hands

when following N’s lead and interests, it is so obvious that she is a drawing machine… and not only does she love to draw, but her drawings are all about storytelling. she creates stories as she draws and tells them to herself and to me.

one of the art therapy techniques i have used with clients (of all ages) came to mind the other day when watching N engage me in her drawing — it’s called dialog drawing (or dialogue drawing for my friends in the uk ) the idea is that two people will have a visual conversation by taking turns drawing on one page. this can be done by one person making a mark (a line, dot, curve,) then another making a mark, and so on back and forth until a picture develops. little ones don’t always have the patience for the slow unfolding of mark-making, so it’s a good idea to take turns making one “thing” at a time. you can say, “okay, let’s take turns! you draw something on the page. then it’ll be my turn to draw something on the page, then your turn. we’ll take turns going back and forth until we feel like our picture is finished.”

today we got out a large sheet of drawing paper – i’d recommend at least a 17×20 white page for this exercise. working large is great when two (or more – get all of your kids involved!) people are using it as their canvas. we used crayons, primarily, but i made colored pencils available. markers or any other dry media would work.

we began by setting some ground rules. make up your own. if you know your kid gets upset when someone’s marks touch or add to his/her work, then make a rule that the marks can’t touch each other… our rules were loose. they were just that she’d draw one object, then i’d draw one object, etc. you can create a rule of “no talking” so that it’s a strict visual conversation, but we chatted when we made ours. our first picture began with N drawing a self-image and a ball (which i later colored in.) on my first turn, i drew myself playing ball with her. it is important to remember to use your child’s artistic “handwriting” or visual language when doing this, so as to meet them where they are and non-verbally communicate that they are being seen and witnessed. more on these ideas here.

you can see how our first images of ourselves and a ball started an entire scene

not only is this a good exercise in patience and turn-taking, but it also helps to develop visual language, and it really allows you to give your child your very focused attention, playing an art game where the content is always fresh and new.

N LOVED making the dialog drawing together! after our first scene, which ended up being a beach picture, she said, “let’s do another one! but this one can’t be on a beach! now, you go first!”

drawing 1: the beach scene

so we did another…

drawing 2: the park scene

we spent over an hour doing these pictures and creating a story and talking with each other about it.

i loved watching how our ideas bounced off of one another. sometimes mine came first…

…sometimes hers did.

it was a really fun and connected morning art activity for us – try it!

N is a big fan of balloons (like most earthlings) so we blew up a few little ones the other day to play.

leave the balloon blowing to the grown-ups

i remembered i had seen a cool post on ordinary life magic back in the spring involving balloons, yarn, glue, and water. i just love projects that involve the stuff i already have in the house. i thought it’d be fun to try this project outside the other day with our balloons. easy enough, right? well, read on…

if you look at the ordinary life magic post, you’ll see these lovely “yarn eggs” that the hardened-by-glue yarn left behind after the balloons popped. i was excited to end up with some of these skeletal orbs, and had some cool ideas for what we might do with them. so we got started… first, dip a 3 foot long (or so) strand of yarn into a mixture of craft glue and water. during the process, we made several mixtures of the craft glue (i used both elmer’s glue-all and aleen’s original tacky glue intermittently to use up the last of two bottles i had laying around the art room.)

then just begin to wrap the wet, sticky yarn around a partially blown up balloon.

after the balloons were all wrapped in lovely yarn scraps, we hung them in the playhouse to drip dry overnight. (if you’re doing this inside or over a floor you care about, be sure to put a towel down or do it over the bathtub.)

the next day we checked on the balloons, and attempted the next step… pop balloon and peel it away from the yarn. cool, i came prepared with a thumbtack. it was a snap, pop, then crackle moment. as the balloon deflated, it crackled as it took the yarn with it, imploding slowly. no pretty yarn orb.

deflated.

i tried peeling the balloon away from the yarn, but it was harder to do on some balloons than others. perhaps the ones with a thicker glue mixture were more stubborn? here are the sad results we got.

so i wrote to stephanie over at ordinary life magic and asked how she got the lovely results she got in an effort to learn where we might have gone wrong. here was her answer: “ours did that, too – some more than others. i just poked my fingers through the egg, and reshaped the ones that had deflated. you could probably use a spoon or something if you wanted to. they’ll stay if they sag and you reshape them, and then as they dry over days they’ll keep the reshaping.” good tips, though i think it was a little late for our yarn tangles, honestly.

we’ll try again another time, but i always like to post these art-gone-wrong experiences so you all can see our trials and errors. it’s also a nice example of the idea that in art, products are often unpredictable, so it’s all about the process! sometimes the materials dictate what they want to become, and we have the opportunity here to honor that and curb our attachment to results. we can model this for little ones who either can become frustrated and disappointed when art doesn’t turn out how they imagined OR were honestly not as goal-oriented as we were from the beginning, and probably just had fun playing with balloons and sticky goop. for me, the most satisfying part of this was indeed the process…  seeing our balloons all lined up outside on the line to dry was just lovely…

and seeing my little one’s mind excitedly expand to include the idea of using balloons for art materials was priceless!

jean van’t hul, the writer of one of my most favorite artsy blogs, the artful parent, interviewed little ol’ me! i am so honored to be featured on her blog, and for the opportunity to discuss art making from my perspective as an art therapist.

check out the interview here, and be sure to leave a comment just under the interview on the artful parent, before midnight EST june 4th to be entered for a chance to win a set of 3 nesting orb kits made by yours truly.

sometimes we’ve just gotta have free art time… without limits on materials, without “how-to’s,” without specified products. i love these moments when N just asks for watercolors or markers or colored pencils and goes for it. we’ve been doing a lot of really open, unstructured art time in our home these past coupla weeks. it’s good for the soul. we just stuck to the basics and watched the creativity floooow…

in my art therapy training, we talked about a theorist named mihaly csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “chick-sent-me-high”) who coined an idea called “flow theory.” flow is his term for the emotional state opposite frustration. flow is when you are fully, happily absorbed in an activity, completely satisfied, but not taking on more than you can handle. it is often what happens when an artist becomes absorbed in their work, and notions of time and space fall away. i relish in this creative space, and kids organically go there in their imaginal creative play. when observing a child in this state, you can usually hear all sorts of made-up stories, characters, ideas, plots spewing out – like a peek into the unconscious, coming out without a filter. such an honor to witness.

while “in the flow,” N has made plenty of tiny paintings that have become and will become cards for friends and family…

N has also worked on some larger watercolor masterpieces that now adorn her art gallery wall…

"duck eating grass" & "N in a beret, about to climb a ladder"

by my nature, i’m more at home with the expressive arts than i am with the crafting. imagination plus pigment yields limitless expression!  so let it flow, let it flow, let it floooow…