art

I came to art therapy with a background in psychotherapy and a basic understanding that art making and imagery provided access to psychological material not available to the conscious mind. My general artistic skills and artist identity were non-existent in the beginning, and to my surprise began to develop with persistent engagement. I have learned that talent is not as necessary for authentic self- expression as I thought, and that persistence and dedication to the craft goes a long way. Turns out, true love for something is key to make it manifest.

I used to enjoy the art process and have always been intrigued by the revelations, but had not expected art to become an integral part of my existence. My art making started as an intellectual curiosity and has since turned into a sacred practice to connect not only with the personal or collective unconscious, but with the transpersonal realm as well. Painting the Divine Feminine as it appears in its various archetypal forms has become a spiritual practice, a way to commune with Mystery.

My mosaic work is a contemplative practice, a type of ritual to create internal transformation as thought is given form. My art and therapeutic offerings alike are based on a solid foundation of teachings and technique balanced with an intuitive, allowing, flexible, and client based approach. Below you can see examples of my art over the years, and some of what you can experience when working with me.

“Skyline” was a simple expression of my longing for home.

A practice art therapists engage in as part of their profession is called response art, which serves us therapists in that it gets us to make art on an ongoing basis, and our clients, in that we get to offer visual responses to what they share with us, what it was we heard and understood, and how we were impacted by them. This mask, which was auctioned at the 2008 Denver Hospice Mask Project was a response piece I made to a grieving client with child and life partner loss.

Playing with sticks in search of the answers