Programs & Events
The Creative Proccess in Art Therapy Workshops and Classes
In all of our art therapy workshops and classes, participants and facilitators work side by side as fellow artists from the start. When facilitators and participants work together as co-artists, allowing participants to view the facilitator as a person with similar struggles, rather than as a “teacher” or authority figure.
No Commenting:
OSP’s method springs from a fundamental concept discovered from years of art making: A person’s creative process will guide them in its own time and its own way, as each person becomes open to it.
A vital element of our process is the “No Comment” rule: neither facilitators nor participants comments on each other’s artwork – ever. Comments can interfere with a person’s perceptions and feelings about their own work and can take a participant out of what the process itself is providing.
The Open Studio Process
1. Intention
Every class begins with each person formulating and writing what we call an “Intention”. This grounds and focuses the art-making that will follow. Intentions can be anything from “I relax” to “I enjoy making art” to “I gain clarity about the confrontation I had at work.”
2. Artmaking
Simple artmaking techniques are then introduced. We provide all art materials: oil pastels, tempera paints, foil, found objects, and a wealth of other materials.
When you enter our studio, you will find easily accessible media in an inviting array, ready and waiting for you. Our space is a safe, open place to be creative-to color outside of the lines.
3. Witness Writing
After artmaking, participants write about their work quickly, spontaneously, and without censoring, in a process we call “Witness writing.” Participants use their artwork as a springboard, describing their image, how it felt to make it, how it feels to look upon it; Whatever words that come are welcome.
4. Reading
At the end of the class, the group comes together to read. Each participant will show their artwork, and if they choose, they can read all, or part, of what they have written. The “No Comment” rule allows us to be more attentive, taking in each other’s work and words more fully.
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