Day Five
After posting yesterday's exciting instalment I ended up talking to some of the staff who were using the internet at the same time. I asked a few questions about working in a Christian guesthouse and told them a bit about the Hall. One of them was a Spanish lad who was a bit older than the others, who it turned out was doing an MA in drawing. He's been living/working here for 6 years and has done a fine art BA and now doing this course. It was cool cos I got him to show me some of his work on his computer and I showed him some of mine. He had done loads of etching, almost all from observation around London and some were really nice. We talked until midnight at which point my computer died and his phone rang. It was really great to meet another Christian artist.
So, my latest night in ages meant a groggy morning and I was happy to be the only person in the dining room at all (except for the obligatory bored staff girl, who eventually assumed I was no risk to the bacon and decided to leave). I started on my walk but after a minute or two of skidding decided I'd get the bus instead. The first lecture was by a firey Italian lady, who talked about working in a special school with boys. For the first 30 mins or so she showed slides of the boys' artwork and we had to do a free association type thing, and just say the first thing that came into your head. For some reason I find this a bit irritating, doing it as a group I mean. I always think people are trying to please the teacher or sound intelligent or like they imagine a therapist should sound. After she'd done that she explained that the reason was to stop us thinking that people can interpret what a picture means, as it can mean different things to different people. The role of the AT is to keep an open mind. Most patients come with a very limited view but if they feel able to be open to the image they may be able to open up to their emotions. She also talked about liking or not liking clients and said that usually she doesn't like her clients when she first meets them, which is helpful because when you begin liking them it is usually a sign that some change has taken place. She was maybe the clearest and liveliest lecturer of the week and I found her very interesting. At lunch we had a talk about applying for courses, even though I've already applied for one, then after that had a bloke talking about AT and substance abuse. A combination of sitting all morning and having a full stomach and the late night and his very dull presentation style made me just want to go to sleep and I had to fight not to fall off my chair. I asked him about the differences working with men as opposed to women, thinking men would be far less open to doing AT and to sharing their feelings, oddly enough he said the response was about the same. Next was our last group experiential workshop and all we had to do was one piece of work as a group. The old lady left the room while we decided how we were going to handle it. We had a pile of paper and the usual paints etc. It was interesting seeing who wanted to organise and take a very structured approach and who wanted to be spontaneous and organic. I was firmly in the latter (which is a bit of a contrast to how I am in most other things) and we all began painting and drawing etc. It was weird how it progressed and I couldn't help feel that everyone was working away, but being very polite in effecting other people's marks but not really changing them. At one point I cut the end off one of the corners, provoking gasps of horror and the stuck stuff on someone else's work. It felt like there was such a big group of girls who were just decorating every thing and it was like glitter and nail varnish and candy and just too much. I felt like I needed to do something and eventually got the biggest brush I could find and made a big muddy shape in the middle. We talked about it for a few mins after and the old lady said she was pleased with me for asserting my masculinity after being so polite for so long. (i was the only lad in the room at this point). It was weird how I didn't feel any attachment to the work (probs cos I didn't find it beautiful) and just wanted to change the girlyness of it and provoke people - imagine, nice little me?! Again I finished the day off with a nice brisk wall back to the guest house. I've really enjoyed the walking, partly because of the weather and partly cos of the exercise and partly cos of the cityness. I'm giong to miss it, I can tell.
So, my latest night in ages meant a groggy morning and I was happy to be the only person in the dining room at all (except for the obligatory bored staff girl, who eventually assumed I was no risk to the bacon and decided to leave). I started on my walk but after a minute or two of skidding decided I'd get the bus instead. The first lecture was by a firey Italian lady, who talked about working in a special school with boys. For the first 30 mins or so she showed slides of the boys' artwork and we had to do a free association type thing, and just say the first thing that came into your head. For some reason I find this a bit irritating, doing it as a group I mean. I always think people are trying to please the teacher or sound intelligent or like they imagine a therapist should sound. After she'd done that she explained that the reason was to stop us thinking that people can interpret what a picture means, as it can mean different things to different people. The role of the AT is to keep an open mind. Most patients come with a very limited view but if they feel able to be open to the image they may be able to open up to their emotions. She also talked about liking or not liking clients and said that usually she doesn't like her clients when she first meets them, which is helpful because when you begin liking them it is usually a sign that some change has taken place. She was maybe the clearest and liveliest lecturer of the week and I found her very interesting. At lunch we had a talk about applying for courses, even though I've already applied for one, then after that had a bloke talking about AT and substance abuse. A combination of sitting all morning and having a full stomach and the late night and his very dull presentation style made me just want to go to sleep and I had to fight not to fall off my chair. I asked him about the differences working with men as opposed to women, thinking men would be far less open to doing AT and to sharing their feelings, oddly enough he said the response was about the same. Next was our last group experiential workshop and all we had to do was one piece of work as a group. The old lady left the room while we decided how we were going to handle it. We had a pile of paper and the usual paints etc. It was interesting seeing who wanted to organise and take a very structured approach and who wanted to be spontaneous and organic. I was firmly in the latter (which is a bit of a contrast to how I am in most other things) and we all began painting and drawing etc. It was weird how it progressed and I couldn't help feel that everyone was working away, but being very polite in effecting other people's marks but not really changing them. At one point I cut the end off one of the corners, provoking gasps of horror and the stuck stuff on someone else's work. It felt like there was such a big group of girls who were just decorating every thing and it was like glitter and nail varnish and candy and just too much. I felt like I needed to do something and eventually got the biggest brush I could find and made a big muddy shape in the middle. We talked about it for a few mins after and the old lady said she was pleased with me for asserting my masculinity after being so polite for so long. (i was the only lad in the room at this point). It was weird how I didn't feel any attachment to the work (probs cos I didn't find it beautiful) and just wanted to change the girlyness of it and provoke people - imagine, nice little me?! Again I finished the day off with a nice brisk wall back to the guest house. I've really enjoyed the walking, partly because of the weather and partly cos of the exercise and partly cos of the cityness. I'm giong to miss it, I can tell.
2 comments:
You cut corners!! How dare you! :P
And what it is with these kind of classes and glitter paint. Okay, so i never took any art therapy class, but I did take in a worship painting seminar, that may as well have been. Way to assert your masculinity Michael, I'm sure there had to be at least one or two females in the group that appreciated the alternate point of view.
happy to hear of your destruction! i am learning more and more that being able to remove the preciousness from the things i make is making them better. this whole discussion of collaborative working really makes me want to paint with you. i hope we can do it again sometime.
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