Making: Art, Meaning, and Life - A Community-Based Art Exhibit

Artist Statement

Each art piece has its meaning, just as a name is given to a newborn baby. A unique personal sense is created in the artmaking process. In this way, art is an individual's self-expression communicating their feelings, emotions, and thoughts.

All art pieces in the exhibit are a personal exploration of dialogue with the unconscious, dancing with creativity, and setting free imagination. Each has its evolving process of life and a relationship with the others in the exhibition to contribute to the wholeness of the picture.

In this art exploration, the creator/artist experimented with making art like a child who played in the imaginative world, feeling absorbed and lost. Through this creative play, a naive beginner has achieved knowledge, experience, and insights about artmaking and its value in mental health and general well-being.

A new identity as an art therapist and artist has emerged within me from explorative artmaking. Some artistic skills have been gained accidentally as a result of the process. As the first art show, the artist used enthusiasm, imagination and vision to design and frame the exhibit and present it with authenticity and honesty.

As an art therapy graduate at the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute, the exhibited works illustrate my personal learning and understanding of artmaking and its application in therapy. It is a contemporary conclusion to the three-year training and a celebration of my new birth of an art therapist passionate about promoting art therapy in the community.

More than a graduation project, this exhibit is also a public statement to announce with excitement that an art therapist is ready to unfold a new career to connect with others through therapeutic artmaking and creativity.

It is the start of a life-long journey in pursuing art and therapy.