Happy Re-New Year!
As I take time on this last school day of the 2018 calendar year to paint over canvas's in an effort to renew the surfaces for future artists in art therapy to use... I find myself flooded with some pretty amazing reflections that I wish to share with you today.
For Centuries, artists who painted on canvas, wood, and other surfaces would often reuse surfaces leaving layers of amazing paintings and artistic studies under final masterpieces that are today hanging in some of the world's finest museums.
Art Therapists are charged with treating the art created in session with a reverence that whatever is created, is first and foremost the artists, and also an important expression that is part of the therapy process. We have many ethical concerns to factor in when the art maker no longer wants the image, leaves without a way to contact them, or other ways that art is left unresolved. In the district, the art therapists encourage kids to make choices about their art after it is completed. It is part of the process of what we do, and often these decisions are more important in their meaning than "what do we do with the art." Sometimes images will be destroyed prior to bringing art home if the artist feels it shouldn't go out of the art therapy space. When art is left at the school with no clear resolution, we often store the art far beyond the time that therapists are required to maintain records in case a student returns for any reason and request it. All of the Alton Art Therapists have amazing stories of kids returning as students or alumnae and the impact that seeing their art being treated with care has on them.
For the first time in the 28 years that art therapy has been a part of the district, I am using white primer to paint over unclaimed images painted on canvas that have been stored for many years
(coincidentally... it happens to be 28 canvases!)
The metaphors that come from the act of painting over past images to make the canvases available for kids today are pretty powerful...
1) Art is Powerful!
Art making creates a lasting history that is difficult to erase. Literally... after three layers of primer.... some of these images are fighting their way through the white and their colors or textures will be impossible to completely cover. How Resilient! Art therapy can help one revisit, reshape, and learn from life events that we can never really fully erase but we can make it part of our history that builds our own resiliency.
2) There is really no such things a getting "blank slate..."
But we can all be renewed and get a fresh start!
Professionals who dedicate their career to working with kids who have the full range of reasons why being at school can be tough know more than anyone... that these kids need many chances to paint over a rough morning, day, week and start fresh with a team around them that are ready to look at them with those fresh, "new coat of paint" eyes as well.
My Plan for these Canvases...
Once these canvases are sufficiently prepared, it is my intention to keep these as an option for kids to select. When making that decision...we can explore what that means to take a canvas that served another purpose for a kid years ago and add to that canvas's history by giving it a new life to create their own mark. And of course...we will explore what starting with a fresh coat of paint can mean to all of us!
Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Break!
-Mr. Schwartz
