How did you start getting interested in the arts? What motivates you to create?

I have been interested in the arts since I was a very young child. I have always enjoyed exploring different mediums and often pursued creative extracurriculars. Yet, I choose to focus on pursuing an integrative biology degree during my undergraduate years. It was not until my father died and I turned to art to express myself that I realized I needed art to play a more significant role in my daily life. At that point, I discovered Art Therapy and began to adjust my life to pursue a career as an art therapist.

I have learned that creating is important to me for many reasons. For one, it is a form of self-care. It helps me stay honest with myself and gain insights into my own inner world. For another, it acts as a means of connecting with others. It prevents me from becoming too isolated and can sometimes offer me a sense of purpose.

What is your favorite medium and how do you approach your subject matter? 

My favorite medium is consistently changing. Right now, I am enjoying working with dried plant matter. I collect flowers, leaves, and other natural materials during walks near my home. Then, I decide what method I am going to use to preserve what I have collected. Sometimes I press the flowers in-between book pages. Sometimes I burry them in silica gel to try to maintain their 3D shape. Often, I do not completely know what I am going to create as I collect and preserve these materials.

I like to go through the collection and preservation process, then think about what engaging in those actions was like. From there, I think about how my sensory and emotional experience relates to the theme of the artwork.

For example, in the past I completed artwork at the bedside of my dying relative. I collected living plants from her garden and pressed them inside the books that she would never finish reading. A few weeks after her passing, the dried plants were ready to be used in artwork. The themes of that process were deeply personal and evoked metaphors of death, preservation, memory, and new life, among others.

This artist residency has the theme of “on standby.” Thus, I have paid more attention to my act of witnessing as I partake in nature walks. I have noticed that I am paying more attention to the fallen, fall leaves around me. I am also going on more frequent walks in an attempt to catch each new color palette as it becomes available. This has deepened my awareness of my relationship with nature. It has also pushed away feelings of isolation by connecting me to the living environment.

Then, there is the act of preservation, as well. I have noticed that the dried materials must be “on standby” before I can actually use them. There is a waiting process where I am ready to create but cannot begin to do so until the materials are also ready. In a way, this creates a collaboration between myself and the materials. As an art therapist, I often consider the artwork to be a “living” presence. This interaction with the materials heightens the sense that the art itself has a presence.

 

What are you trying to communicate with your art? 

I firmly believe that I am responsible for no more than 50% of the artwork’s message. I can pour my own thoughts and intents into a piece, yet the viewer must pick up the other 50%. The viewer has their own thoughts, experiences, and understandings. When my worldview clashes with theirs, meaning may be enhanced or twisted or clarified or clouded.

Thus far, I have not produced artwork that is intended to communicate a singular idea. I also do not typically tell my viewer what thoughts to have regarding my work.

 

Tell us about art therapy a bit more…

Art therapy (AT) can look very different depending on the therapist as well as the setting where it is taking place. AT requires a Master’s level college degree to obtain an entry-level position.  At it’s core, AT uses psychotherapy techniques alongside creative outlets in an attempt to process lived experiences.

When I am working with an individual or group, I think of AT as a non-verbal way to communicate, process, or understand a situation. That situation might be a current circumstance or a trauma that occurred decades ago. AT might be a way for a person to practice coping skills. In some cases, somebody might make artwork that can be used as a comfort object, a container, or a personal reminder of something they learned.

 

To what extent does the pandemic influence your depiction of art? Does it generate new inspiration?  

One question that the pandemic has made me ask is: how can I support someone with art when I cannot be with that person?

When I think of my art practice including running an art therapy session, this question includes the fact that I cannot provide physical materials to a person who is in a completely different physical space from me. Thus, I have needed to learn how to run a virtual art therapy session AND I have needed to create art activities that work even when I cannot provide art materials. I have noticed that I do a lot more work with mindfulness, guided imagery, and “objects” than I did in the pre-pandemic days. (Objects here means random items that each person has in the environment around them. A paperclip. A lamp. A window.)

In many ways, this has expanded my skillset and I do believe art therapy has benefited from incorporating virtual spaces into treatment sessions. I know healthcare providers who wanted virtual sessions to be recognized as valid forms of care years ago.

 

How do you feel about being involved in an online residency program? How important is it to stay connected with the international art community?

Participating in an online residency program has allowed me to participate in an opportunity that I would not have otherwise had. The Belgrade residency has challenged me to think about my experience as a frontline worker “on standby.” In particular, I have also been challenged to express my experience through art.

It is important to me to participate in this challenge because it gives me the opportunity to participate in the artmaking process in the same way that I would ask the folks I work with to participate in their own artmaking.

The opportunity to interact with an international community is also important to me. As a US citizen, it can become easy to center my own experience of how the pandemic unfolded within my country and with my political climate. Yet, the experience of the global community is a very important part of this story. Connecting to artists from multiple countries holds me accountable for remembering that the impact of SARS-CoV-2 was not universal. The impact is highly dependent upon local governments, healthcare providers, and social systems.

 

What are your thoughts about the theme ‘artist on standby’? Tell us a bit more about your project…

In my project, I intend to explore what it means to be trained as a healthcare provider during the early years of this global pandemic. I was working as an art therapy hospice intern when stay-at-home orders were first issued in March of 2020.

A few months later, I began my new internship placement at the behavioral health hospital that had the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 in the USA. While I was not expected to be in contact with known positive cases, I was very much working on the front lines as the pandemic unfolded and before vaccines were available. I needed to learn a completely new way of delivering mental health services (digital and hybrid formats). I also witnessed many people who postponed seeking support for their mental health because they were afraid to leave isolation.

I recently learned about ecopsychotherapy and I believe that these concepts mesh with art therapy very well. Thus, my current artwork explores how I can use nature as a means of connection and support for mental health. Exploring nature’s impact on mental health is particularly poignant during this time of year (October) because winter is on the horizon. Plants and animals are preparing to conserve their energy and “isolate” during the approaching cold months. Seasonal depression also begins to flare during this time of year.

As I discussed in an earlier question, the plant materials I am drying also have an imbedded metaphor of “standby.” They cannot be used when I first collect them. I need to wait for them to dry before I can use them. And there is a sense of connection that I have already begun to build through my routine nature walks as well as the process of waiting for the materials to be ready to use.

I am not sure what my artwork will look like yet. I do not have a plan. I am letting the artwork develop step-by-step and letting it guide me. So far, I have developed a few questions that I find intriguing. Those questions focus on the fall leaves I have been collecting. (One of those leaves is pictured on a blank page of journal. It is about to be pressed flat.)

The leaf in the picture is mostly and orange-yellow, with a few hints of red. It has scratches on its surface and is not the leaf that most people think about as an ideal candidate for preservation. It is too beaten up. Too imperfect. Yet, this leaf has performed its task just as well as the leaf that is in more pristine condition. It caught the sunlight and nurtured the tree throughout its lifetime. And, now that winter is approaching, it has transferred nearly all of its nutrients back into the tree before falling to the ground. So, of course it is battered. Of course, it is its time to change.

My questions: how often do we change our own leaves? How often do we renew the surfaces through which we absorb our nutrients? Do we change often enough? Do we recognize when we are not receiving the nutrients we need to sustain our own wellness? What do our leaves look like? What do our leaves look like when they are new? What do our leaves look like when they need to be changed?

 

What do you want to achieve before things return to normal if it is to happen? Any future plans/projects?

I have not set a goal of what I want to achieve before the pandemic ends. It has been my personal belief that this virus will not be eradicated, so I am focused on finding a way to continue living alongside this horrible virus.

My BA is in integrative biology, thus I have learned some very basic information about how viruses spread. I know there has only ever been ONE virus in history that was eradicated. Smallpox (which is still kept in 2 labs for “research”) was eradicated because the entire population was vaccinated quickly. If anything, smallpox demonstrates that it is possible to eradicate a virus through collective action.