Well with all the shutting down of services with COVID 19 it seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Arnica Art Studio Blog up and running!
Most of you know that I am really into Intuitive Art. I never really knew what it was called until I meet another Intuitive Artist who explained what it meant to her and immediately I realised that's what I had been doing! I had been floundering to explain it, trying to link it to the surrealist concept of 'automatic drawing' but it didn't quite feel quite right.....
When I create art, I try to allow my hands to do what they need to do. I trust that they know what colour to select and the type of line and shape they need to create. Sometimes I challenge myself to take a risk and reassure myself that it will turn out okay and if it doesn't, that's ok too. I remind myself I can always rework something or paint over it. I just let things happen and do what I feel.
Sometimes the work is purely process-based and I have to remind myself that that is totally fine - enjoy the ride and the sensory experience! Other times I push myself to finish something - fill the whole page and look forward to what it looks like as a complete unit. As I've got more in tune with my private practice, my confidence has grown. Originally I started with drawing - using mainly the Lyra branded 'Colour Giants' but then progressed to water colours enhanced with fineliners and more recently, acrylic painting - something I thought I'd never do, yet at high school, painting was my favourite medium!
After graduating from Art school in the mid-90s I was reluctant to create art. I felt I was talentless and didn't have any ideas. Developing concepts seemed like too much work and I felt exhausted just thinking about it. Art had lost its spark for me. I realise now that I was having a trauma response towards creating art, which I believe was a direct response to my experiences of art-making at university. I was having a shutdown response to the pressure of always creating work that had to have strong concepts in a postmodern age which would be harshly judged, often by lecturers I had little to no respect for.
Luckily for me, I always had a burning desire to teach Art, that passion was still there even though I had lost the joy of creating art for myself. Once I started teaching art to kids, I loved seeing that art spark in them- their freedom to just jump in and do it, take risks, experiment, do what they feel without worrying how it looked. I also really enjoyed coming up with activities to engage and enlighten them through their own creativity and imagination. This became my creative outlet. I poured my heart and soul into my teaching career but of course that ultimately led to exhaustion and major burn out....... :(
Enter Art Therapy!
I have always been interested in Art Therapy. I first heard of the 'concept' when I was in high school but it wasn't really a career option available for me back then. In Adelaide where I was living in the late 80s/early 90s, there were no art therapy courses available and certainly no practicing art therapists around! I couldn't afford to study interstate or abroad so I enrolled in art school instead, with a vision of becoming an art teacher and maybe an art therapist down the track.
Art Therapy has become much more popular now and in the last 5 - 10 years I started to meet people who had trained in Art Therapy. This reignited my interest in this field. I started researching options for myself and that is how I discovered the Initiaitic Art Therapy course offered by the Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy in Apollo Bay. I was nervous about the course as I hadn't met anyone who had done it but I liked the idea of traveling to Apollo Bay for weekend retreats to do the coursework. It also meant it didn't impact my work commitments too much as it was spread out over two years with additional options for 3rd and 4th year. Here's the website if you are keen to find out more: https://www.sensorimotorarttherapy.com/workshops
Needless to say, undertaking this course changed not only my career path but my whole life. It was the key I had been looking for to unlock what I had been struggling with for decades. Gradually I was able to let go of everything that had become entrenched at art school. It allowed me the space to give myself permission to just enjoy making art for art's sake.
I started with journaling. At first, it was writing and doodling which gradually moved to colourful abstract pencil drawings. I also experimented with watercolours and black markers and more recently, acrylic paint. All based on the concept of doing what I felt like doing at that moment of time. I often found that it helped regulate my mood, released tension, anxiety and even anger. It brought a sense of peace, calmness and positive self-belief as I enjoyed seeing what I was making. Compiling much of it in journals meant I could see my 'progress'.
I think the biggest problem with journaling is that you start with great intentions - just like a new year's resolution - and when life gets too busy, you forget about it and lose momentum... Then you feel bad that you started another thing you never finished....... Alternatively, you buy a journal that is so beautiful that you are afraid you will ruin it if you use it! So I discarded those rules. Guess what? It's natural to have bursts of creativity and times of dormancy. That's totally fine. What does it matter if it takes you 3 months or 3 years to fill the book? I stopped beating myself up if I didn't create something every day but I did look for opportunities - drawing whilst watching TV, taking my journal with me to restaurants so I could draw whilst waiting for food or to a friend's house so I could 'doodle' whilst we chatted. Some pages of my journal are beautifully illustrated, others are incomplete or a scrawl of black lines. As a collective, all those marks have a place and a strong sense of belonging - after all, it's not meant to be a glossy art book, it's an insightful work-in-progress reflecting a time in your life!
So dig out that journal you started 2 years ago or that blank book with the embossed cover you think is 'too good' and make a start! Your creative soul will not only be grateful but also proud of you! After all, no one can create anything like you can! Your art is as unique as you are :)
Need some further inspiration?
I've always loved the 1000 journal projects - this project started with one person sending out 1000 blank journals out into the world for people to find and pass on. The journals included a note requesting the finder to post them back to an address when they were full. You can find out more about that here: http://www.1000journals.com/ and there's a fabulous book published about it too!
And there are lots of books on the topic - this is one of my favourites! https://www.emilyneuburger.com/2017/04/journal-sparks.html
Another alternative, just google 'journal prompts' to help get you started!
Happy Journalling!
Bianca :)
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