Book Description

Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is an effort to give voice to the artist aspect of our identity as art therapists. This book is about how the artists work, how they learned to do it, why they do it. This book will give you glimpses of the memories, and perhaps the scars, of the artists. Be honored. The artists in this book know that it is good to make art and they make good art. Through their work they demonstrate their faith in the product and the process. For some of them, art making is their anchor, in the turbulent world of helping professions. For some, images come in response to their clients. For all of them, making art deepens and enriches their lives. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is a presentation of artworks and contextual essays by professional art therapists. This book is foreworded by Don Siedien and includes an introduction that addresses the structure, rationale and intent of this book. The introduction is followed by the artist-therapists' contributions. Each art therapist's selected artworks are presented on one full page in the text. Immediately following the art piece(s) is a brief biographical sketch, a photo of the art therapist and his or her artist’s statement. From the very beginning of the art therapist profession in the United States there has been steady discussion of the relative importance of the 'artist' aspect of art therapies' professional identity. In the thirty years that the American Art Therapy Association has been in existence there have been few other topics that have generated as much interest and debate at the annual national conference. Over the past several years there has been growing interest in re-igniting our artistic passions and welcoming them back into our professional identity. This movement has been evidenced by a number of conference papers and workshops and professional journal articles focused on examining the integration of the artist and the therapist aspects of our work. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists presents art therapists as committed and serious, fine artists. This book will be a significant contribution to the literature, and identity, of the art therapy profession.