Stephani Stephenson on mon 26 mar 01
Mel wrote:
when art becomes therapy and psycho babble, the society
winds up with bad art, and really poor psychological help for
those that need it.
Mel
I think the broad, sweeping nature of your statement appears to
discredit some very worthy
aspects of the therapeutic uses of art. I admit the word art itself
is perhaps too broad a term to be useful for everything we want it to
mean
Art therapy is an acknowledged and worthy field. A skilled art therapist
can
do remarkable work, especially with children with autism and children
who have been
beaten and abused.
Art therapy can be valuable for adults as well because it bypasses
verbal defenses , clich=E9s and habits. Art therapy can be a very
powerful healing tool.
Even outside the realm of formal art therapy, the practice of craft or
visual exploration
can become the foundation of someone's return to wholeness ,functioning
, connection, or health.
Whether one calls this ART is moot. The role that this type of
artmaking, art therapy plays , has not much to do with people gaining
five minutes of celebrity with pyschomasturbatory dilettanteism. (made
that term up, couldn't find the one I want)).
I think that these are two different avenues which only occasionally
intersect.
I do think that occasionally one does see professional work which
strikes a deep or sincere chord within the psyche or the deep emotional
self,
but this work differs from the work I think you are describing, and is
much more rare.
A related topic is art that serves as satire or social commentary. Most
artists who attempt to do this fail miserably.
Usually the message crudely upstages the visual vehicle.
Every once and a rare while an artist working in top form and wit will
pull it off in a way that gets the message across, while maintaining
aesthetic integrity.
Again, the word art is applied, but again seems far too broad to
describe all these different activities , whose only common point seems
to be the use of so called art materials. But thatsa whole other can o'
worms.
I just didn't want to see the baby (art therapy) get tossed out with
the bath water (shallow psychobabble art)
best wishes
Stephani Stephenson
Leucadia CA
mudmistress@earthlink.net
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