Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Found Hope (Love,Courage, Peace,...) Guerilla Art

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

We have talked about Guerrilla art here before. Basically it is the concept of bringing art into the community in an unexpected way. Usually it involves big, bold artistic statements, but in this case, it is more about a generous sharing of handmade art and a simple message to a stranger that is a gift to the art maker and the surprised recipient. 

Making art is a deeply personal expression for most of us, and because of this, the act of giving it away, to a stranger...indeed, to leave it behind is both terrifying and liberating.  This art therapy process challenges the artist to consider a concept on a personal, emotional level, and then share it with a stranger.  By creating something meaningful, then lovingly gifting it away, the artist can work through issues of loss in other areas of their lives.

You'll need:  Small art canvases between the sizes of 4x6 to 8x10" on hard board, acrylic paints, brushes, water, Pens, high quality writing paper, dry glue sticks

Choose a word that reflects something that is important to you:  Hope, Courage, Love, Peace, Faith, Joy, Friendship, Mercy, Forgiveness etc.

On the small canvas, paint an abstract expression of that word using color, line and movement. Use the entire canvas area, covering it entirely.  Let it dry. 

Once dry, paint the word your chose boldly somewhere on the canvas, over the painting.  Allow to dry.

Pick up the paper and pen.  Cut the paper down to the size of the canvas.  Write the word "Found" followed by the word you chose to represent on the front of the canvas.  (so, you'd have "Found Love, or Found Forgiveness, Found Courage etc.)

Look at those words.  Imagine finding this, like a fortune, somewhere, like you were someone who needed it.  What would you say to that person?  Write it down on the paper.  For example, you might write:  "Found Love:  You found this today because someone thought you needed a hug, you needed to be recognized as worthwhile, and valuable, You are beautiful, wonderful, and worthy of big love. This artwork is a gift to you. "

Glue the message on the back of the canvas. 

Now, take your canvas out into the world. Leave it on a park bench, a seat on the bus, at a restaurant, in a mailbox, where ever someone who might need it, will find it.  Walk away from your wonderful gift knowing that you have shared strength and healing greater than yourself.


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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Wise Word Collage

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.

Those of us who have been through any kind of pain in life, be it a romance ending, a death in the family, a loss of any kind, or even just the habit of internalizing our thoughts and feelings, know that writing out our feelings is often a useful way to release the inner angst and work through complex emotions.
Creative people have been doing it for centuries. Poets and great writers have used their own internal struggles to inspire some of the most powerful and timeless written words that still move and resonate within humanity today. A quick Google search under "famous quotes: heartbreak/ loss/love/ friendship or any other word that fits your own struggle or issues will turn up prose from names like Shakespeare, Poe, Whitman, Twain and others.

This collage process asks the artist to use found and printed quotes from the computer or book sources, or their own written words from journals or letters, along with abstract painting, to illustrate a feeling or emotion that they may struggle with or be working through.

You'll need:  11x17" watercolor paper on canvas or pre-stretched canvas, paints, Modge Podge decoupage medium, paint brushes, scissors, printed quotes of choice or copies letters, journal pages or written words to reflect your feelings or emotions

• Gather together all your written word material
•  
• Using paints and canvas, think about the emotion or issue you have been working on in your journal or internally, and using colors and form, express it on the paper.  Fill the whole of the paper with color and shape to give the viewer a sense of the emotion and feeling behind the issue for you.
•  
• Once done, allow to dry. While drying, look through your written word papers.  Tear the sheets of written words into irregular shapes to apply over your abstract painting in a collage manner.  You may use as many or as few as you think you'd like to, covering as much of your painting as you like.
• 
  
• Using the Modge Podge, apply the torn word pieces to the canvas and apply a coat of Modge Podge over the papers to seal to the canvas.  Once you are done apply the papers, apply a coat of Modge Podge to the entire surface to give it a consistent surface appearance.  Allow to dry before display.

Process Notes:  The purpose of this process is to express the issue the artist is thinking about in two ways, both through color and form and in word.  Through the process of making the art, the artist again releases some of the angst and power of the emotions associated with the original issue and puts that energy into the artwork itself.  While reading through the quotes and thoughts of others about similar circumstances or emotions, the artist sees that the feelings are not unique and that others have felt those same emotions and have expressed them... and moved on.  This takes some of the power and energy away from the original issue as well, making it just part of life, and not something life should revolve around.

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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Nature Mandala

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

We have talked about Mandala's here before, and as an art therapy device, the Mandala is a versatile tool.  Carl Jung was obsessed with them and said, "I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate."

Especially significant as a tool for healing for women, the circle symbol, often associated with the womb, or Mother, can help artists work through issues and develop a sense of wholeness and integrity. 



Start this process with an 11x17 piece of watercolor paper and your favorite medium, water color paints, markers, drawing pencils, collage materials, ... whatever. 

Draw a large circle, a mandala on the paper to take up the majority of the page. 

Now, close your eyes.  Imagine a lush forest in springtime. Everything is mossy, wet, bursting forth with life. New growth. The sun filters through a canopy of bright green leaves, you hear water dropping onto the soft earth below your feet. Blooms on tiny plants begin to unfold around you. Vines begin to climb up the tree trunks, ferns shoot up and unroll into lacy feathers. Breathe it all in.

Now fill your mandala with the life that you absorbed. 

Process notes:  

The very act of filling the symbolic mandala with imagery of new life is a healing act. Subconsciously the artist feels renewed, and refreshed by the guided imagery and by the act of creation. As the mandala is of the artists creation, she acknowledges her own ability to be life-giving, in some way, and celebrates that through use of color and line. At the end of the process the artist should be relaxed and satisfied. 

If the artist is working through a loss due to abortion, miscarriage or other grief, creating life images in a mandala helps to re-establish the artist as a life-giver, a creator.  It gives the artist time to work through feelings of guilt, regret and sadness with each brushstroke or line. 

If the artist is so overcome by feelings of remorse, sadness or guilt that she cannot draw anything in the mandala, the group facilitator would need to encourage her to take the smallest step in creating one thing, one image of life in the mandala.  A small step on the way to healing, is still a step and opens up the door for verbal communication.

 
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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Rise from the Destruction

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.

Many of us feel devastated by life. We feel wrought by our own decisions, regrets over past mistakes tear us apart because we refuse to forgive ourselves and move forward. Sometimes we torture ourselves over pain that we did not cause, but still endure...just to feel alive. Grief over lost loved ones, tragic events, whatever the cause of our inner sadness and self-flagellation, now is the time to end it. 
Spring...Easter, this is the time of renewal. A time to release ourselves of our grief, to forgive ourselves of our past and bloom again as all things do.

What you'll need:
8x11" water color paper
drawing pencils, paints or markers
Medium sized canvas board
Modge Podge decoupage glue
Small sponge brush

Take a 8x11" piece of drawing or watercolor paper and paint, use drawing pencils, or markers and use the entirety of the paper to create a symbolic representation of what it is that grieves you. Use color and line to put all your emotions of regret and sorrow, anger and pain into the image, releasing those feelings into the paper.  Move quickly and don't think too deeply about what you are creating. Use your emotions to move the colors and create the image.

Once done allow it to dry if necessary and get your medium canvas board out along with Modge Podge glue and a sponge brush.

Rip up your image of grief and pain. Tear it up into pieces and strips, destroying the memory of it and the power it has over you. Let it go with each tear.

Use the strips of paper now to create something beautiful on your canvas. Use the Modge Podge glue to glue the strips and pieces of colored paper down to form a beautiful flower, or image of your desire. Whatever it is, take your time to create something beautiful from the old, torn paper.

Once done, take a deep breath and release the last of that tension and know that your Spring has arrived.

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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Celtic Cross

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

With St. Patrick's Day being this weekend, I cannot ignore the obvious holiday inspired art process. I will spare you the Shamrock drawing, but will instead take a cue from St. Patrick himself and set our minds on the Celtic Cross.

St. Patrick is said to have designed the Celtic Cross himself.  An artist of any faith cannot deny the intricate design pattern is a beautiful example of complexity and detail. The pattern in the Celtic Cross is a continuous, connected line. Creating a pattern like this yourself would be a difficult task to be sure.

Instead, I would like to invite you to use the  square Celtic cross pattern as your foundation and fill it in with a linear pattern, abstract and detailed, use the creation of the pattern as a means of meditation. 

On an 8x8" piece of drawing paper, draw a circle. Then, draw the basic "+" pattern in the center, giving you a interior cross surface to draw into. (as similar to in the image at the top of the post.) 

Take a fine point black sharpie marker, and begin to draw a design in the interior of the cross.

Lose yourself in the creation of it. Much like a doodle, let your mind wander as you fill in the cross pattern with angles, or the repeated swirls or waves you might create.  The joy of this project is in the creation of it, in the nearly hypnotic creation of pattern and line within the borders, not necessarily the completed project.  

While you work, let your mind clear of all worrisome thoughts. Think only of the security and comfort of the lines within the borders, of the flow of the ink on the paper.  Add as much detail as you want, use as much time as you desire.

Much like working within a Mandala, the process itself is the path to healing, it is giving the mind and body a chance to relax, to heal, to clear and de-stress, within certain parameters that give it permission to do so. 

Enjoy....  

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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: The Art of Giving Away

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.


Not long ago I read about an artist that would create small canvas paintings, beautiful creations really, and leave them around a city.  The artist would leave the artwork on bus station benches, park benches, at restaurant booths, in churches, store fronts, laundry mats, anywhere people might gather or stop.  On the artwork she'd leave a note saying something like," This is for you. This art was meant for you to find today. Take it and keep it. Enjoy it." Some call it Guerilla Art.

Giving away artwork is difficult for some people, just like letting go of our pain and guilt, or our egos and pride.  Anytime that we invest ourselves in something and then have to let it go... it is a painful process.

It can also be a rewarding process. The act of investment, and release, although painful, and although grief is part of it, can lighten our emotional load. It can relieve us of our internal baggage, our heavy -hearted burden that we drag with us through life. When we invest, and release, we can discover new skin...new life, new eyes to see the world. A renewed spirit. 

Definitely a journey worth taking. Although painful,...it is worth the journey, most would say.

So, with this in mind, this weeks Making Whole art process challenges you to take a small (4x6") pre-stretched art canvas and some acrylic paints and create something beautiful.  Whether an abstract swirl of color and line, a whimsical backdrop for a heartfelt poem, a fiery rose or scenic pasture with a lovers confession or mother's regret written across the bottom.  Whatever moves you... create it on the canvas.
Allow it to dry completely. Do not sign it.

On the back, attach a note. Say whatever you want to say, but make it clear that the finder of the art may keep it, may love it, may accept it in the sense that it was made and given to bring joy and happiness.

Take your art to a place where it will be found and leave it there. With it, leave any sense of ownership, pain, regret, grief... and walk away from it.  With each step you take, breathe deeply and feel lighter and lighter.....

Own the new you.


Read more about other Guerilla artists...
http://thisiscentralstation.com/featured/mysterious-paper-sculptures/

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups


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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Love Note to Yourself

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

With Valentine's Day being this week, I thought about how we share our love with others, but often times give away our love, without loving ourselves first. Many of us judge ourselves most harshly, are overly critical of ourselves and say things to ourselves that we would never, ever say to a beloved friend or lover. 
Love Thyself is a great philosophy, one we are all familiar with, but it is difficult for some of us to do.  Sometimes we punish ourselves for past mistakes, or refuse to forgive ourselves for our human flaws. 

Whatever our issues, Valentine's Day can serve as a reminder to care for ourselves more tenderly and see the good in ourselves that our friends and family recognize.

In this art process you are asked to first pick up a pen and paper and write down all the lovable things about yourself. Make a list of why you love yourself, or why you SHOULD love yourself. 

Then, use the media of your choice, watercolors, pen and ink, colored pencils, collage materials, whatever you like, create a valentine as big as you like for yourself. Make it as colorful and creative as you can imagine. It will be a gift to yourself and a reminder of how lovable you are.

Once done, take a black sharpie and write along the border or within the heart all the reasons you are lovable. 

Hang on a wall or display somewhere as a reminder that you are a lovable person who is worthy of love and tenderness. 

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Emotion Chair

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

 Have you ever wandered through a furniture store trying to pick out that perfect chair? It is not as easy as one would think. The choices are endless, ranging from wood to wicker, upholstered and overstuffed to backbreaking stiff and ornate. Each chair as you look upon gives you a different feeling. One might make you want to hop in and take a nap, while another makes you feel regal or perhaps even tortuously put-in-your-place. 

We are all like chairs, when we present ourselves to other people. Sometimes we present ourselves as the comfy chair, sometimes as the throne; not to be approached.

Take up some colored pencils and paper or whatever your media of choice is, and create a chair that represents how you feel today. For fun, overemphasis the qualities your feel today in the look of your chair to make a fanciful chair that leaves no doubt about how you should be approached. 

Processing:  Look at the chair you created. What does the chair say to people that approach it.  Write out the words that it might say around the chair.  Are those the words you Really want to say to people? Are they protecting you or serving you in some other way? 
If you could help the chair to be more approachable (if it is not approachable)...what could you do? If you want to draw that solution, do so. 
If you want, draw the type of chair you'd like to look like.  How can you get from the chair you Are, to the chair you want to be? 

Options: Feeling Extra Motivated? Take a plain wood chair and turn it into your fantasy chair! By making your Emotion Chair dimensional, you acknowledge the power of that emotion, and in the case of negative emotions, once acknowledged, the emotion, and the effort of creating it in a 3 D model, helps to relieve the negative impact of it and reduces the power it has over you.

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Prayer Flag

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.

Prayer flags are a tradition that goes back thousands of years back to India. According to Prayerflags.com, "Bonpo priests used solid colored cloth flags, perhaps with their magical symbols, to balance the elements both internally and externally. The 5 colors of prayer flags represent the 5 basic elements: yellow-earth, green–water, red-fire, white-air, blue-space. Balancing these elements externally brings harmony to the environment. Balancing the elements internally brings health to the body and the mind.

Buddhists added their own texts to increase the power of the flags. There are ancient symbols, prayers and mantras for generating compassion, health, wish fulfillment, and for overcoming diseases, natural disasters and other obstacles."

Prayer Flag Project

You need:

Scrap fabric in both solid colors and patterns

Dimensional fabric paint

Cording or heavy string

Scissors

In this art process, You are asked to take a square of fabric of your own choosing. It can be a solid color, or a vibrantly patterned piece.  Choose a color or design that you resonate with... something that represents who you are on the inside... your personality...your soul.  The square of fabric can be cut with rough edges and should be at least 8x8"big. 

Next, take black "Slickers" or a black dimensional fabric paint, and paint on a word that represents a hope, a prayer, that you would like to send to the world.

Perhaps you don't want to use a word, and keep your hope or thought more private...use a shape or symbol instead.

Maybe you'd like to release something on the wind? Release regrets, sorrow, along with your hopes and prayers... make a separate flag for those thoughts.

Make as many flags as you like. 

Cut a small hole in the top left and right corners of the flags to pass cording through. String your flags along the cord and hang between two trees or posts so that the wind can blow across the flags to carry your prayers to the sky. 

NOTES:  In this process the act of releasing regrets on the wind can be a powerful thing, as is stating one's hopes and displaying them and releasing them to the "universe" in this way. It is like making a promise a concrete thing and giving it more power. It can help motivate and lift a person to a new level and is a visual reminder of goals for the future.

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: The Art of Rebirth

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.  

Acknowledging our past traumas and the scars and ugliness left behind is a necessary process to go through before we can shed that burden and be reborn into the new day. In order to free ourselves from the guilt, sadness, pain and grief we may feel, we must face it and then consciously let it go.  This is very difficult for some of us, and unless it is physically enacted, this internal process may never take place. That is what this art process seeks to do.

Taking markers, paints, pencils or any art medium of choice, on paper and create an image of your past painful experience or trauma.  It can be an abstract expression of the lasting feeling you have, a realistic image that may haunt you of an experience, however you want to express it is fine. Take your time and express it fully on the paper in all its colorful or bleak ways it comes to you. Allow it to dry if you need to before moving on to the next part.

Once your initial image is dry (if painted) or completed. Look at the image and talk about what it represents (if in a group) or write out your feelings about the image. Write directly over the picture if you like.  Take a deep breathe and let go of those feelings.  Allow yourself the ability to move on from this dark place to a new place of lightness and forgiveness and bright new energy.

Now...Bring out a fresh piece of paper and a glue stick.  Tear apart the old image and use it to create a new image on the fresh paper. It may be hard for some people to destroy the old image, just as it is hard to let go of the old pain and trauma, but you must. You must rip it and tear it into pieces in order to make the material for a new image that will represent your moving forward.  Take the pieces of the old picture and create something of beauty with it.  Tear it apart and glue the pieces into a new shape, overlap them, add to them, whatever you'd like... but there should be nothing of the old painting or picture left whole. 

By tearing apart the old image of our trauma, we show that we have strength over it. By using it to create an image of something new and beautiful, we recognize that although we have conquered it, we can still acknowledge that it is part of us.. but it doesn't have to hurt us anymore. 

Can you use art to be reborn? Be brave enough to try.  

 Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: The Mask of Grief

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.  

This week's tragedy in Newton has left the nation coping with grief for the loss of innocent lives and may have re opened wounds for other parents of lost children. No matter who we have lost in our lives, children, or loved ones of any age, getting through the grieving process is difficult and we are often forced to maintain a mask of composure and hide our often overwhelming sorrow to deal with the tasks of daily life.

This process asks that you use an actual mask shape, make a dimensional mask or simply draw it out on paper.   Show, on the left side, the outer face you show to the world, and use the right side the inner emotions you feel regarding your loss or grief.  

By drawing out or expressing the duality of emotions, responsibilities and the conflict of doing what needs to be done and feeling, we give permission to our inner selves to release those emotions and recognize their truth and importance.  

When you show the mask to others, do they turn away or do they embrace you? 

They, most often than not, embrace and support you... you can always find true friends who will, and that means that you need to spend Less time with the mask on the left on... and more time wearing your true feelings on your face.  

The more time you spend sharing your grief, the more you can work through it and come back to the world stronger and with a sense of purpose renewed.  




Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Guided Imagery Tortoise Shell

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 


Guided imagery is a tool used by therapists and people in many professions. It is a system of visualization as a way to relax and move into a state of calm and sometimes a meditative state. Sometimes it is used as a tool to help people visualize things they fear, and to work through those fears in a guided imagery before facing the fear itself in reality.  The skill of the therapist or leader of the imaginary journey will determine how intensely the client in involved in their "fantasy."

As a tool for healing, it allows the artist to start in a restful, relaxed state of mind, without fear, and to approach an art process openly and honestly.  The following process is found in my book Art as Therapy: Inspiration, Innovation and Ideas.

In this case, I use the term "guided imagery" in a much looser fashion.  For you to complete this process on your own, I would want you to simply gather your art tools, crayons, markers, or paints and paper, and get yourself into a relaxed state of mind first before you read the following guided drawing assignment.

• So, take a deep breath, and relax.... close your eyes and find a quiet space before you begin the rest of this process. 

Think about a tortoise shell. A tortoise shell reflects all the beauty in nature, as well as an image of the life of the soul beneath it. If you had a shell, what would it look like?

Draw your shell.


Processing notes (read when you are done with the exercise.)

If your shell is flimsy and full of holes, you feel insecure, damaged, wounded. Why? What can you do to strengthen your shell? Make it harder? Over the next days, work on your shell and fortify it. Invite your friends, if you wish, to help you make it stronger.

If you shell is vibrant, extravagant and bold, you are an individual person with a creative spirit...good for you!
The act of drawing and working on the shell can be meditative... lose yourself in the process and see what the colors and shapes tell you about yourself.

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: Doorways through Time

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.  

The basic timeline has been used to depict and review a persons life path in a therapeutic way for decades. A simple line with demarcations for years and notations of important events help remind us of our journey, accomplishments, defeats, and choices along the way. 

As a visual tool, a timeline has endless possibilities for life reflection. A more creative approach means realizing that no ones life takes a straight line with a neat and orderly list of data and statistics. Our lives, and all the choices we have made, all the people who have come in and out of it, who we have loved and lost, all of our mistakes and successes, are made up of color, texture, scars and depth. 

In this approach to a life-reflection timeline, I ask you to consider your most impactful moments, the moments that have shaped you, hurt you, and healed you as doorways you have walked through to get to the next part of your journey.  Each doorway, from start to where you are today would look differently... perhaps the very first door that you entered into this world would look golden bright and new... perhaps a doorway to a toxic relationship would look battered, made of wood and broken.  

Use paint, pencils, collage materials, old photographs, any medium you feel most comfortable in, and create your time line of doorways and doors... 

Once finished, look at your journey. What does it tell you about the choices you have made? What are your doors made of? Have you had to squeeze through them? Have they been easy to open? to see through? Have you been able to guess what was behind them before you opened them? How can looking at them now help you in the future? 

Create an image of the next door you want to walk through.  Make it the most beautiful door you can dream of... post it somewhere you can see it everyday and make that choice a reality. 


Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

Making Whole: Healing Through Art: All The News That's Fit To Report

 by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.  

The following process is based upon a project I wrote about in my third book Art as Therapy, Inspiration, Innovation and Ideas.  

It's a collage process that utilizes the newspaper as almost a spontaneous word association therapy session in a creative way that can open up new ideas about your own motivations, inner thoughts and emotions.


Here's what you need:
Daily newspapers, including comic sections, advertisements, everything.
18x24" Masonite board,
Modge Podge decoupage medium,
Sponge brushes.

• Pull apart the newspaper sections and pile in a heap on the table near your Masonite board and Modge Podge.

• Close your eyes and relax, clear your mind of any preconceived ideas of what you Want to create. Allow yourself to accept what comes to you.

• Reach into the pile of papers and glance over the headlines, images and words that jump out at you. As you see things that relate to you, how you are feeling or that just resonate with you in some way, rip them out of the paper and put them in a pile in front of you.  Continue to do this as you work your way through the newspapers.

• Once you have a good selection of collage/torn newspapers in front of you, begin to glue them onto your Masonite board with the Modge Podge glue. First put some glue onto the board, then apply the newsprint.  Do not try to put the newspaper in neat, orderly, easy-to-read columns, mix them up, in a collage fashion. Overlap, turn, flip and rotate in a careless, random fashion.  Cover the entire board.

• Once the whole board is covered go over the entire board with one more coat of the Modge Podge to seal.  Allow to dry.

Once dry, look at the piece as a whole. What words come out over and over again? What is the overall feel to the piece? Is there a theme? Is it an optimistic themed piece? or does it dwell on the dark side of the news? Is there a balance to the words and images, both negative and positive? Do the words represent things that have happened to you or how you feel? How do you feel when you look at the piece.

Hang the piece in a central area and invite close friends to give their opinion of how the piece makes them feel? How does their reaction make You feel? Talk to your friends about the process.

What you will find is that you have picked out words and images that relate to your current state of mind, you current inner thought process and inner emotions. They may not be things you are comfortable letting other see in you everyday, they may be feelings or thoughts you are more comfortable keeping hidden, but when you use the "news" to talk about these feelings, you can open up a discussion about these deeper parts of you, and begin to work through them and bring them to the light, whether with close friends or family, or just for yourself to further work on or accept.


Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Healing Through Art: What Are You Made Of?

 by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal.  

Paper dolls can have hinged appendages or be simple silhouette forms

Using the self-portrait in any of its forms as a tool to self-analyze is always useful.  It helps us visually identify how we feel about ourselves, and how the thoughts we have about ourselves can impact the way we feel and deal with our daily lives.

In this self-portrait activity, we start with a paper-doll form cut out of cardboard and using collage picture images of textures like stones, rocks, wood, and feathers and actual textural collage materials like lightweight fabrics, small screws and nails we create a tactile and visual representation of our how we see ourselves.

First gather materials. Find papers or magazine images of textures like images of rocks and stones, and actual fabrics.  Glue stick, super glue, and scissors.

Cut out a paper doll form that is at least 12 inches tall out of cardboard.

Using collage materials, cover the form with images of materials that relate to how that part of your body acts or feels.

For instance, if you head feels fuzzy, use cotton balls to cover it.  If you think you are hardheaded, cover it with pictures of granite or concrete.  If you think you have a screw loose, put screws or pictures of screws on the head. Get the idea?  

Do the same for all the areas of the body on the doll form.

Once complete, look at the complete form… at the representation you created of YOU.  When you see it complete, what does it tell you? What do you think others would see or think if they saw it? Do you think it is an accurate description of you?

Let the doll sit in your space for a few days.  Look at it and see if it still seems to fit who you think you are. 

Are there things you would like to change about it? Would you like to be less hardheaded for example?  How would you do that? Can you make a change on the doll to represent that? Do so. 

Continue to work on the doll to change the things you want to change… one thing at a time.  Look at the doll continually to remind yourself of the changes you’d like to make.

Remember, a self-portrait only captures your interpretation of you in that moment of time, and you, like your portrait, are always a work in progress… the journey continues.

 Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Re-imagine Happiness

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 by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

Milkweed Study: Steinbach

 We often take the little things for granted, and when we are feeling depressed, lonely, and worn –out; we find it even more difficult to find the “happy” in our world.

There is a saying about smiling when you don’t feel like it… “Fake it till you make it,” force your smile and eventually it will become real.  It’s the same way about recognizing beauty again in our world.  If we force ourselves to go out and search for beauty, even in the oddest, littlest thing just outside our door, we may begin to recognize and seek out beauty more and more.

That is part of lifting ourselves out of our own loneliness, sadness and depression. No matter what has brought it on, illness, tragedy, loss or heartache, when we force ourselves to move, even the slightest bit, to recognize the beauty around us, we remember what we are really meant to do in this world. We are meant to find joy, to be happy, to celebrate in spite of everything… to love. 

Take a digital camera or drawing pad and pen if you prefer and move outside or to a place out of your normal space.  Look around you at the familiar and unfamiliar. Look closely at the lines and shadows of everyday objects, the colors and variations of leaves and insects, the bumps and imperfections in the sidewalk, brickwork or tree bark.  Find beauty in the rusty car across the street or in the broken window in the house next door.  Take photos or draw the things you see that you find beauty in or that make you happy in a way. “Capture” the things that you find interesting. 

Milkweed Study: Steinbach

When you return home, play around with your digital images on your computer, or print the images and hang them on your bathroom mirror, on the fridge or near your bed stand.  Use them to make cards to send to friends and tell them about your experience.

If you made drawings, bring them home and use colored pencils to color in specific areas to draw more attention to them. Hang them on the wall, again, near the bed, on the fridge, near the phone or TV.  Allow them to motivate you to do more, see more and find more beauty in the world around you.

Milkweed Study: Steinbach

Make this an everyday challenge to find two, or ten new things to inspire you. Bring them home and do something creative with them. Post them online to show your friends and inspire them. Let the ball roll and see where it takes you.  Put all the pictures together and see if they tell a story. 

What have you discovered? Share here….

Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups

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Making Whole: Negative Emotion Monsters

by Diane Steinbach

Making Whole is a bi-monthly art therapy column focused on art to heal. 

Negative feelings and emotions, if allowed to run rampant, can take on a life of their own. If you allow yourself to perseverate on self-doubt, self-destructive thoughts or self-bashing you can create a monster that can haunt you and continue harming and hurting your life.

Acknowledging your own tendency to beat yourself up for your past mistakes is the first step to stopping the behavior and forgiving yourself.

Once self-forgiveness is achieved, we can begin to heal our lives and our relationships with ourselves and others.

This art process asks you, the artist, the imagine the beast of your mistakes, regrets and "sins." What kind of ugly little monster have you created with your own self-doubts and flagellation?

Use markers, paints or colored pencils to draw out your creature and make it as frightening and crazy looking as you want. Make it big or little, colorful or black and white. Think about all the things that you have used to create it and let it represent all the things that you have used to hurt yourself with, and that you now want to let go of.

If you'd like to create a more three dimensional model or "ugly doll," use felt and craft stuffing material to create a fabric doll representation of your monster. Draw out your monster on the felt first and then cut two matching pieces to sew into a pocket that you can stuff with the filler material. Enhance the creature with additional colored felt and embroidery thread.

When you are finished drawing or sewing together your creature take a good look at it. Does it represent all of the things you have been punishing yourself with?
Sit back and think about your monster. How can you control it. Can you tame it? Love it and make it sweet? or must you destroy it?

When you are ready, use your art materials to change the monster to make it non threatening. Rip up the paper, put it in a cage or make it into a less threatening creature. This may not happen right away and may be something you do weeks later after much consideration.

 Whatever you decide to do with your monster, let it remind you not to allow your past mistakes or decisions to become whips with which you continue to punish yourself with for the rest of your life. You must face each event and learn your lessons from them and then let them go so that they do not become a monster that needs to be tamed or destroyed.

Only by confronting our monsters and releasing ourselves from our own self-punishment can we heal.

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Diane Steinbach is an art therapist and the author of: Art As Therapy: Innovations, Inspiration and Ideas:, Art Activities for Groups: Providing Therapy, Fun and Function and A Practical Guide to Art Therapy Groups