4 Year Old's Art Exhibit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13660478

Check out BBC link above, a four year old has her own art exhibit - more to write about this and collecting soon...

Collecting and Gathering

I tend to have a fondness for small glass containers, mostly jars, but also vases and the like. I am also a big freecycler and believe that if we allocated our resources, each of us would have what we needed at the time we needed it. Images of attics and basements and closets filled with stuff, good useful stuff, at the right time.....I also often procrastinate by gathering and collecting, it seems a precursor to actually revising doctoral papers or grading or reading, activities that require me to stay in one place- my mind wanders and immediately goes to art projects and processes that I have missed, assemblages, sculptures that have been taking up space in my mind without time for action- arise when there is deadlines and with minimal time to complete a paper. Above are photos of such gathering and collecting via a generous freecycler, 200 stated, I believe to be over 500 mini jars with screw on lids 1.5 to 2 inches, which held small computer parts. Ideas are endless of how I can use them, fill one up each day for 365 days, create an installation, fill them with my many unorganized beads, grow plants in each of them to later offer to others, give them to my students for potential art inspiration....in each case it reminds me of my need and according to Dissanayake, our human need to collect, arrange, gather and create. When offered these small glass containers I could not refuse and even now as I write I am antsy to hold them, fill them, put them up to the window light......but first revisions to my qualifying papers, which present a different creative process.....

Altered Book and Summary Entry for Class

The images above are from an altered book that I have been creating. Systematically- I have been committed to working on one page, one day a week for (at least) one hour. This book has come to completion as the semester’s end has arrived. This blog was revived, after its initial creation in 2008, due to a special topics course I am finishing on technology. After researching blogging I have come to understand that my blog has served in part as a digital portfolio that reflects and documents my thought process regarding the direction and aesthetic of my dissertation. I plan to continue to document this process in this blog form as a commitment to reflexivity and transparency in research. I truly wish to thank Gene and Lisa and my colleagues, technology does not necessarily come naturally to me- having this course and the time devoted to exploring the relationship between my research and potential technological tools has helped to widen my vision and expand what is possible. Many, many thanks.

Youtube link to presentation of Ellen Dissanayake's work

http://youtu.be/H-0UzBO6Rpo

This video was unavailable to be embedded or simply added to a blog, here is the url. I am writing my second paper for the Creative Imagination class and watched this video for inspriation and relaxation.

Two More Bundles

Here are two more bundles, created today while discussing my research direction and what is most important. It was great to be in the studio with my colleagues and I think I have found a way to keep on track- looking forward to January to revise my pilot study and literature review- I also think I have a strong idea of who I'd like to have as the third person for my committee, which is a relief. I 'm also realizing again how important it is to meet with my cohort to review where I am both personally and professionally with the research design. After reading Dissanayake's "Homo- Asestheticus" and Modell 's work in " Imagination and the Meaningful Brain" I'm compelled to bring other components into the mix; adding neuroscience and art as a biological behavior with children's art making, metaphor, and attachment. The conversation widens and expands !

"Recognizing art as a biological need can give us not only a way to better understand art, but by understanding art as a natural part of us, we can understand ourselves to be part of nature" (Dissanayake, 1995, p.34)

Dissanayake, E. (1995). Homo aestheticus. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Bundles with Natural Found Objects and Fiber

I created these bundles with a vigor, quickly and whilethinking with my hands. It was a very kinesthetic experience, it was so enjoyable to wrap and to swaddle these materials. I think this is a part of continuing my materials exploration in finding the just right materials to offer my research participants, it keeps me connected to the work in a spontaneous yet aesthetic way.

Artist/Therapist International Post Card Exchange

As a way to re-enter my blogging for research I'm going to begin with art that I created as a part of an exchange with other art therapists around the globe, this was organized by Art Therapy Without Borders. I created a total of 23 postcards, I worked on them, in part, while I was at the AATA conference in Sacramento the first week of November. I stayed with the materials as I created these small works and let the materials lead me, I enjoyed the mixing of media, especially the graph paper, white watercolor crayon and pencil. There are some forms that relate to nests, pods, weaving and connecting, protection and communication, these are all concepts I am exploring in my pilot study and contributes to the final qualitative research design.