Things to Do with Socks

Confession: I hoard socks. I would love to wear them. I fully believe it is an art therapist's right and duty to be a tad eccentric and wearing wild socks would really work for me in that respect. However, I can not/do not/will not wear any of the completely fun, hilarious, downright radical socks in my collection, because I intend to make things or help others make things out of every last one of them. A part of me thinks I should buy two pair of everything, but that's another story...

Gretchen the Group Leader
Sock Monster
2009

I have a thing for making monkeys and monsters and when I was under twelve, I also made dolls out of socks. One can also make all sorts of sock animals. Let your imagination run wild. There's just something about transforming one thing into something else that feels so darn right to me.

Untitled Donation
Sock Monkey
2009

I have also done this with clients in the past: making stuffed sock animal gifts and hiding gratuitous wishes and dreams on slips of paper in the stuffing. (Hint: this is a great thing to do with someone who doesn't do well following through on tasks, because it's different, fun and requires more than a single session).

Dame Shirley Fonteyn de Arias
Sock Monster
2008

I was talking with a fellow therapist about my love of monster-making and my curiosity regarding what it would be like to make a problem or illness into a small monster of clay or socks and she commented on the power of language with even the suckiest of problems. For example, one might say, "I am IN a depression," and it implies a lack of control and rings of being lost, while, "I HAVE depression," gives one power over it in a sense. Yes, I have this "thing" (this monster if you will), but I HAVE it, so I can put it in a box, shove it in my pocket or I can take it out and examine it when I want. I am in charge. I'm not lost in it. I own it. Plus, I think there is something about making your problems, no matter how massive they are, that makes them feel more controllable or provides another way of looking at them.

Archibald MacGroober
Sock Monster Dogish Thing
2008

Here are some of my creations. I like to make them, write about them and sell them should the opportunity arise. Examples with stories follow...

Owen Titus MacGregor

Sock Monkey
2009

Owen loves Camel cigs, cheap beer and hot she-monkeys. He loves to rock out with his buddies all night, play poker and drink tequila shots whenever he gets the chance.

He's looking for a home where he can live out his life in the rockstar lifestyle he has always longed for. He prefers to sleep tucked in beside blonds, but any sexy momma will do.

Owen is child safe and loves kids, but may be a poor influence on your teens.

Amy Argyle

Sock Monkey
2009

Amy's off to college at She Monkey University, a private school for she-monkeys, where she will be studying liberal arts. She is the last monkey you would expect to find at a kegger doing body shots or jumping on the furniture at some frat house. Amy loves broccoli, bagels and brie (although not all together), reading nineteenth century French literature and playing Beethoven sonatas. Amy is a vinyassa yoga champion and has practiced ashtanga with the the best.

For more information on making sock monkeys go here: http://www.craftbits.com/project/sock-monkey
I recommend this book on monsters: Stupid Sock Creatures
This book has some good information on making sock animals: Stray Sock Sewing
Sock Dolls: Sock Doll Workshop (I haven't seen this one myself, but it has high ratings.)

Rhahhhh!!!!

I had today off and spent it holiday shopping of which I am not so much a fan. No time for art, but it is time to go to bed. This all makes me very cranky.

Coincidentally, this is my latest spread in my journal.


I was thinking about a couple of things when I sketched this. The first being how rich and awesome my internship site is and the second how saturated I am with being a student. Learning feels like it takes time away from learning at this point. (If you've ever been about done with grad school, that last sentence might just make some sense to you.) I felt like this image in a yay-I-have-so-much-cool-stuff-going-on way on Tuesday. Today I feel like this in a damn-it-I'm-stuck-standing-here-catching-some-blue-liquid-and-not-doing-what-I-want way.

I wanted to make more postcards. My lesson for today is that not getting my usual scheduled art time makes me feel like shaking my fists toward the heavens and screaming a slew of cuss words.

Art Journal

One consistent assignment throughout several classes in my soon-to-be-finished (whoop! whoop!) graduate program has been the art journal in which we are asked to visually respond to readings and things going on at our internship. I have kept both written and visual journals for years, before I even started the art therapy program, but I have only recently felt inspired about the one I keep for school.

Allow me to introduce you...

This is my art journal.
It is made from a brown cardboard moleskin sketchbook. The outside is based on one of my untested A.T. theories (feel free to explore this for a thesis of your own. Idea theft is encouraged at The Art Therapy Rookie). My theory goes like this: people are more likely to feel a benefit to art-making when they feel competent and like what they made. I could be way off on that, but it's my experience people at least seem to like art therapy more when they learn something new and create something they appreciate. Maybe it's just a good way to get people committed to the work and the hard stuff can come later. I don't really know and I'm getting off track. Anyway, going with that idea, I decorated the cover with paper mosaic, because it requires not a lot of skill, can be adjusted for all ages and can create clean and structured patterns or images. Also, while doing it I discovered the repetition is meditative. For how-to information check out Perfect Paper Mosaics by Susan Seymour. There are several books on paper mosaic, but this one is the best I've seen. Her website is here. A super simple wikihow paper mosaic description is here.

Inside my art journal, I explore whatever is going on in my head, readings and internship site. The latest example is here.

Technically, I tend to use a lot of watercolor, but along the making-art-feel-more-accessible stuff I'm exploring, sometimes I use stamps or other techniques I discover at my local Michaels or Joann Fabric and Craft stores. With this spread I tried flocking for the first time, although it's hard to tell in this scan. Next week my goal is to try sewing stuff in here, since I've had so much fun sewing postcards for the postcard exchange. After I am done with exploring whatever visually, I try to take some time to put some words to the thoughts, which often comes down to writing on top of my work. This spread is about me trying to figure out the role art plays in therapy. I've been chasing that question around my head a lot lately.

In summary, art journals are a good time, allow a space to process stuff as well as try out techniques on self before introducing to others. Get one. Make one. You'll be glad you did.

Video Therapy

Happy Thanksgiving. My household has a Thanksgiving video-making tradition. We ask each other the same 5 questions on film and then review past years' responses to assess how we have changed or review what has happened in our lives previous years.

It got me thinking about ways to use video in therapy. I have used still frame animation in therapy. Here is a YouTube example of someone doing still frame with a white board. I totally want to try this!



You could also use clay, toys, furniture, yourself. Basically it involves moving or changing something in tiny increments, taking a whole lot of photos and putting them together with some basic video editing software. Seems like a good one for working on maintaining focus/attention. I think it could be a fun group project as well.

I also thought about video therapy as a possibility for someone who is physically ill and working on leaving a legacy.

I found video on you tube of a woman using it with patients with Alzheimer's disease. It's a little old, but still useful information.

I read a chapter in Materials & Media in Art Therapy about therapists using video with groups of people who are homeless and HIV positive. I also found this article in Time discussing the use of video to help people gain insight into what they say and how they say it.

Any other thoughts or ideas? Have you used video in your own work?

This Week's Postcards

Coping Skills Box for Baby Art Therapists

This year’s internship is 95 parts group to five parts something else. I am working with adults. Last year’s internship was 20 parts group to 80 parts individual work and I was working with teens. When I started this “new” (not so new anymore) internship, sometimes my supervisor would say something like, “Hey, do you want to lead an art therapy group later today (or in half an hour)” and somewhere inside I would begin to hyperventilate psychologically, because although my favorite population is of the grown up world, figuring out what to do and how to keep this population engaged scared me.

I am still trying to figure out what art therapy means to me personally and where it fits into helping patients/clients/the entire world, but one thing I have noticed in my own corner of art making is that I use art to create what is missing. What was missing when my supervisor used to say, “Wanna lead this one?” was 1. A plan and 2. Familiar tools. Therefore, I made this…

The Art Therapy Coping Skills Box
(So that I can cope with pulling a group out of my back pocket at a moment’s notice)

This is the outside. In time, I hope to completely engulf it in art, but for now I've only done the lid. The quote is from No More Secondhand Art by Peter London. "The artistic process is more than a collection of crafted things, it is more than the process of creating those things. It is the chance to encounter dimensions of our inner being and to discover deep, rewarding patterns of meaning."

The inside looks like this...
I have supplies in here for cards, flags, worry people, mindfulness beads, seed packets, masks, body scans, collage and a stress ball.

Most importantly, I have this!
This is my group notebook. I take this with me to my internship everyday and keep it with me pretty much all of the time. (What is that Marine rhyme? "This is my rifle..." It's like that.) I spend time researching possible group themes and activities and write down everything I think I need to know to run it like I know what I'm talking about. I write down the groups that I watch others do in case I need to repeat them. This makes me feel safe. The spiral binding is additionally awesome, because I can fold the cover over nice and just have this small thing in my hand while I am doing a group. It's like a blanky or binky or thumb sucking for A.T. rookies.

So, anyone need a group leader? Bring it on!

First Postcards

I've been running over plans for this blog for a few weeks now, organizing my thoughts and writing entries in my mind. I've got a lot coming... in theory. However, since I am starting to send the postcards for the Art Therapy Without Borders Postcard Exchange and added this new blog address right on the front of the cards I better get this blog started.

So without further ado, postcard one for ATWB...



Postcard two is for a classmate from my supervision group last year who happens to be on my postcard exchange list. I have a list of people from all over the world: France, Japan, Australia and one of my favorite grad students from my own school! Mazel tov!



These guys are assembled from my scanned artwork as gel medium transfers on watercolor paper (thanks Maddie) scrapbook paper and stamps glued and machine stitched together.

For more info. on transfers go here http://www.calsk8.com/zeitgeist/acrylicgeltransfers.htm.
For more on the postcard exchange go here http://www.atwb.org/Postcard-Exchange.html.

On a side note I got a mood ring from the biofeedback presentation I went to at the AATA conference in Sacramento which I coincidentally wore as I made these. It was all black before I started, because I was freezing as usual and it was gold when I finished. Also, I felt warm, happy and full of Csíkszentmihályi flow by the time I had to put the supplies away. Evidence that art is good stuff.