Art Therapy and the Creative Process - A Practical Approach

International voices from across the globe come together in Art Therapy and the Creative Process to share their perspectives on art, the artist's process, and how art has been therapeutic for them.

In the first section, the three primary contributors--Alfredo Zotti, Samuel Mann, and Cynthia Pearson--create a triple commentary on a piece of art. Zotti paints a picture, Mann analyzes it, and Pearson writes a poem to complement it. In later sections, various artists share why they write, paint, play music, or take photographs, including what their individual mediums mean to them, what they may mean to others, why they have chosen various art forms, how art allows them an opportunity to escape from the world, and how it can also help them heal.

Artists will find kindred spirits in these pages. Lovers of literature, music, and art in all its forms will gain insight into artists' souls, how they view the world a little differently, and why. Art Therapy and the Creative Process gives art a purpose beyond what most of us usually think of it having-that art is a way to keep us all sane in a maddening world and it gives us the opportunity to create something to heal that same world that wounds us.

"Art Therapy and the Creative Process is a fascinating, multi-perspective look at art. I found myself resonating with many of the pieces here. Art allows us to take control of the uncontrollable and make meaning out of chaos. Viewing art as therapy opens the door to a new understanding between art, science, and psychology."

-- Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and award-winning author of The Best Place and Narrow Lives

"Creative activities heal. They lift us out of suffering for awhile. They validate us when we feel damaged and worthless. And, over time, they can transform our perception of our world, so that we change from sufferers to survivors, and even joyful surmounters. Art Therapy and the Creative Process can be a shining example for those who want a way out of a personal hell."

--Bob Rich, PhD, psychologist and author

"Personal stories and insight in the process of healing are at once empowering and therapeutic. Unlike the standardized medical therapies, healing via art, as sampled in this anthology, is the natural and most effective key to our most valuable asset--our health."

--Ernest Dempsey, editor, Word Matters

Learn more at www.AlfredoZotti.com

Art : Criticism & Theory

About the author

Although a Spanish teacher by profession, Cynthia sees herself as an educator interested in issues that affect teacher professional development. Outside of teaching, she is bookish, a lover of books, and her children call her a bookworm. Because her head is usually buried in a book, she considers herself an introvert. However, she is deeply intuitive with a creative mind. Unsurprisingly, she is a supporter of the arts and enjoys going to the theatre, listening to music, and appreciating good painting, slam poetry, photography, and the like, all of which help to enhance her appreciation of life.
Cynthia began to develop a more than passing interest in writing poetry from about grade two in primary school, but this interest became a fledgling skill that began while doing A-Level English Literature. As a university student in Jamaica in the mid '80s, she enrolled in a creative writing course. At the end of that course, she was pleased to have one of her poems published in the Arts Review, a volume dedicated to budding creative writers from the Faculty of Arts and General Studies. In 2013, she was officially named chair of the poetry group Poets of the Caribbean (POTCar) Circle, whose members are largely Caribbean nationals at home and in the diasporas.
The reader will discover that Cynthia's writing style is as varied as the issues that concern her.

Product details

• Authors: Samuel Mann, Cynthia Pearson, Alfredo Zotti
• Publisher: Applied Metapsychology International Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2017
• EAN: 9781615992973
• ISBN: 978-1-61599-297-3
• No. of pages: 168
• Dimensions: 221 mm x 286 mm x 16 mm
• Weight: 903 g
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Miscellaneous