It's time to try your hand at some digital art making; artist or not, you might even find it addictive. Join the International Art Therapy Organization and the Art Therapy Alliance for an interactive global art event reflecting these three words: art, peace, and sustainability. It's an experiment in creating community using digital and social media.
In my previous post on art therapy, digital art and social multimedia, I commented on the somewhat slow uptake of the field of art therapy to utilize and investigate the impact of digital art making and social media in their work. Recently, art therapist Gretchen Miller, community organizer for Art Therapy Alliance, and I decided to try an experiment using an online digital art program and social networking. We wanted to see how (or if) people would respond to making art via their computers and the impact of contributing to and displaying self-created images via an online gallery. To provide some limited structure, we offered three words as a theme-- art, peace, sustainability -- and the option of creating responses "by hand" in addition to digital means. Here's a short film by Miller that will tell you more about the project:
To make digital art making accessible, we chose Polyvore, a free and user-friendly web-based application that allows you to mix and match images from anywhere on the web via your computer. While this application's focus is on stylish fashion-oriented images, don't let that fool you or put you off. There are literally thousands of available illustrations, textures, and text options to use; you can include your own photos and art too. Polyvore lets you create what are referred as "sets" composed of images using a drag and drop editor; essentially it's a digital means of assembling a collage without scissors and glue. But unlike traditional collage, you can easily adjust the size of images and create layers and transparencies not possible with the traditional "handmade" medium. After you have created your set [collage], you can publish and share it with others. To participate in this event--and anyone can-- go to ART PEACE SUSTAINABILITY by clicking here. The event will officially continue through December 31st, 2009.
Now if you do not think you are an artist, this may all sound overwhelming. But believe me, it isn't; in fact, you may actually find that "artist within" you never knew existed. For a quick tutorial, register with the Polyvore site and see http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/help. And take a tour of the current artworks on display; you can "save" images in your items folder from any of the sets for use for your own creations.
What have we learned so far from this evolving exhibit? We're still in the midst of this experiment, so it's too early to draw conclusions. For Gretchen Miller who works as an art therapist with domestic violence survivors, she notes how it stimulated her exploration of the intersection between art making and peace making through the endless variety of images available on the Polyvore site [see Miller's excellent blog Creativity in Motion]. For me, both the gratifying nature of digital image manipulation and the presence of an interactive online community that shares art through a virtual gallery, Facebook, and Twitter is not only inspiring, but also surprisingly fun.
So join the event, explore your creativity, make some art, and let us know about your experience.
Next up: Is art therapy a "sham?" A Twitter tale about how social media views the field of art therapy.
Visit the growing community of art therapists from around the world at the International Art Therapy Organization [IATO], www.internationalarttherapy.org. One world, many visions...working together to create an inclusive and sustainable future for art therapy.
Cathy Malchiodi is an art therapist, visual artist, independent scholar, and author of 13 books on arts therapies, including The Art Therapy Sourcebook.
