'Materials & Media in Art Therapy'

When meeting with Hillary to discuss my dissertation she lent me a book called "Materials & Media in Art Therapy' . Reading through it, it is incredibly relevant to the ideas and thinking behind my practice, and the notion of combining physical sensation and mental health. It discusses the idea of material practice in art therapy. Work by Vickie Morgan is featured in the book, which juxtaposes the ideas behind my work completely. Her images; "Necklace" and "Earrings" which are both made out of straight pins, the idea of physical harm vs mental discomfort is portrayed in her work. As well as this, Valerie Newman's "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Fuzzy Balls Will Never Hurt Me." is featured in the book, under the chapter "Getting a safe place for LGBT youth" . Her work is especially relevant to me, and is something which I would love to explore further, particularly because of her use fuzzy material, something that I want to utilise, because I have so much spare stuffing from the pillows. Her message is particularly overt, as she covers the fuzzy balls with offensive names she's been called due to her sexuality. I like the idea of utilising this and turning it on its head, I could potentially include calming words and messages which could be embroidered into the clothes. As well as this, there is a chapter in the book which focuses on art making as part of recovery specifically, and the artists practices being directly related to their illnesses. The chapter "From Imperfect to I'm perfect" looks at artist, "Chun- Shan (Sandie) Yi's work, which focuses on wearable art that "explores memories of social interactions focused on the appearance of [her] body." What I find particularly interesting about Yi's work is the idea of making her wearable art look like armour, so whilst it is made out of fuzzy and soft material, its appearance has the aim to protect rather than comfort. This idea is something I could definitely explore in my work, because the idea of the relationship of physical comfort with mental health, is something I am looking at, yet more to do with the focus on the person and their own experiences and comforting them, rather than this notion that they could be protected against any future negative experiences.