My Lobotomy is such a fascinating radio program I heard on NPR once, about a man named Howard Dully who had a lobotomy at a very young age, and when he got older, decided to do some research and talk to his family to find out more about it. He always felt different, as if something had been taken away from him, and his family never spoke of the incident. It’s really sad that this barbaric practice went on for so long, in the face of so much evidence that it’s success rate was spotty at best. And so many people’s lives were destroyed by it, usually poor people or people in a bad position without the means to advocate for themselves. And so amazing that in the end Howard was able to find some peace and healing by producing this radio documentary and talking to other victims, and his father.

In Art Therapy class tonight we created works about addiction and what it feels like. I drew a bright yellow shape which I associated with feelings of joy, and of desire, and drawing it with the pastel was really pleasant. But from the top broken anger is descending down. At the bottom is the sadness and pain. A lot of the other works in class were compartmentalized, and that’s how I drew mine. The sadness and the anger are barely touching the tempting substance. The person doesn’t see the connection between them.

In art therapy materials class we made a representation of our families out of non-hardening clay. I used Crayola clay. My family ended up all melding together, their clay bodies that is, and there was a little nest with eggs in it. It’s meant to be a healing way of expressing how you feel in your family dynamic. I took it home where it sat on the kitchen table and my husband said, “What the hell is that? That’s just scary.” I laughed and said, “It’s my family, and you’re that blue being melting into me.”

My family — detail

Why is it that sometimes I can write pages and pages of my novel, and other times I sit at the computer and just can’t write a word? Is there a relationship between working with clay, paint, and other mediums and creativity in writing? Lately I’ve been doing a lot of artwork in my art therapy classes with all sorts of different mediums, and it seems to be freeing me up to write. Perhaps any activity that relaxes your mind and gets your emotions out helps creativity. I also find that writing my worries down in my journal can free up my mind for creativity.

But lately, I don’t know, it’s like I can’t stop the ideas of where my novel should go from pouring out of my head. I can’t stop thinking about it. Which is a good thing! Maybe I’ve got hypergraphia — which Alice Flaherty describes as an overwhelming urge to write. I’ll have to pick up this book, it looks fascinating. She really seems to pinpoint what is so important in creativity, the emotional drive to make something. It really is so much more important than skill, which is also what Joanna Field was saying in her book On Not Being Able to Paint.

And there is fairly solid evidence that drive, and emotional involvement in your work, is even more important than talent in creating something new. — Alice Flaherty

SVA’s Lecture and Workshop series for Art Therapy looks really interesting this season. I really want to attend the MARI Mandala Assessment lecture. All are open to the public, the workshops are $20 and the lectures are free.

A fascinating book which at times gets far too bogged down in the author’s own self-analysis, On Not Being Able to Paint nevertheless comes to some amazing conclusions about what can stop creativity. She talks about the fear to create a piece of artwork and how it often seems like a life-and-death situation, when really, it isn’t at all. After all you can just tear up what you made if you don’t like it. And how it’s really difficult to teach someone how to paint with rhythm and real feeling in a painting. Because that comes from within, from a deeper place, and can’t be taught.

The significance of an art school for an artist, she feels, is not in teaching certain painting techniques but in offering a safe framework and space in which the artist can work. That really resonates with me because going to my art classes once a week really helped me stay creative and keep putting something down on canvas. Whether it was crap or not, which sometimes it could be.

So I think it’s great that two of my favorite TV shows are about divisions of the college I’m attending. Inside the Actor’s Studio is just great, I love hearing actors talk about their craft. James Lipton can seem a bit annoying as the frustrated actor-turned-interviewer, until you read his biography and find out all he’s done in his life including writing books and screenplays and lots of acting roles; and the fact that he started the Actor’s Studio in the first place.

Project Runway is another one of my favorites, because I find it amazing that these designers can put together such great outfits with so little to work with. Sewing aint easy, and to have that level of technical skill plus the creativity to pull it all together, is just a rare talent.

I love plastic cameras, especially my Holga. The photos come out with all these unexpected light leaks and effects. There’s a great article for beginners in Plastic Camera photography I would really recommend here. You can buy Holgas in NYC at ICP.

If you’re anything like me, you love to go to the Salvation Army or any thrift store you can find looking for old weird junk. And one of my favorite thrift store finds is a polaroid camera. If it’s a pack-film type of camera, you can still shoot with it, with varied results depending on the condition and model of camera. If you find one, check out the Land List How To page and get shooting! The photos come out with some very unusual and interesting affects. In subsequent posts I’ll show you some examples of what I mean, after I dig in my old box of polaroid pics. Click on the link below to see this old Polaroid ad in full-size.

I found this interview with Dr. Ellen G. Horovitz really interesting. This woman is amazing, she’s a mixed-media and 3-d artist, an art therapist, and she even writes short stories!

I feel drawn toward multiple media: art, writing, music, dance, drama, etc. For me, the creative process is something that I have to do. It’s not about recognition as much as it is about the creative process: I have to create. It matters not what form it takes.
-Dr. Ellen G. Horovitz

An Interview with Dr. Ellen G. Horovitz: Professional & Academic Perspectives of Art Therapy