Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

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At the end of the exercise, we look at all of the pictures together, exploring how they are similar or different and discussing how the clients is feeling today. I also often ask clients which feelings were easiest or hardest to do and how they felt while they were working on it. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Yet viewed objectively, these fears obviously have less to do with art than they do with the artist. And even less to do with the individual artworks. After all, in making art you bring your highest skills to bear upon the materials and ideas you most care about. Art is a high calling -- fears are coincidental.

At other times, the therapist might want to more directly encourage the expression or exploration of emotions through art. They might set up a directive in a way that will enhance affective processing or will directly give clients a prompt to make art related to their feelings. Why is it helpful for clients to express emotions through art?

Reviews

Creating art is a gift from our creator — one of our closest things to a spiritual reward and most intimate form of individual expression. Learning not to allow one’s ego to become vulnerable to negative criticisms is our second biggest reward. — Suzanne F Fighting Perfectionism

The first half examines the core elements of existentialist thought, and its relation to anxiety as a vehicle for self-discovery and ethical change. The second half will look at artistic depictions of emotion more broadly: how can a painted surface express happiness or misery? And who gets to judge whether it succeeds? For each of the emotions, I encourage clients to do an abstract picture and avoid words, faces, and recognizable images. I ask them to think about what colors they connect with each feeling and then what lines, shapes, and gestures could express that feeling. Learned of this term recently, ‘imposter syndrome’. I struggled with this much of my life without knowing it was common among most of us. Recognizing these feelings and understanding it’s normal helps. I keep my head down and create. — Kate S This is a great book for ALL people, artist or not, professional or amateur. What I mean by that is, whether you want to start cooking, gardening, dancing, painting -- WHATEVER! -- it helps give you motivation to do so. I go to a modern art museum. When I look at some of the pieces that cost thousands — maybe even millions — of dollars for what they did, it encourages me to go home and paint. — Marilynn Kpg 5 "The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your work that soars." Most of the time I try not to think about it because I know I am as good as anyone else. Sometimes, though, the fear is paralyzing and stops me either from creating or communicating to an application because I anticipate a rejection of my skills. When that happens, I have to set aside the day and look through all my media presentation and just send out the info, regardless of the outcome — basically muscling through. — Iris G Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.