“Well, let’s see if I can do this because I don’t know how to draw, maybe Art therapy isn’t for me”
“I warn you that I am not an artist, surely I don’t do it well and it doesn’t look pretty”
“I’ve always been really bad at Arts, I don’t know if I shouldn’t do this then”
And so millions and millions of messages of this style, and don’t get me wrong, I understand perfectly where they come from, they come from hearing the word “art” and our brain is already programmed into “I have to be an artist to do this”. We come programmed first with the idea that art is accessible only to a few and second with that art is something that has to be aesthetic, beautiful and pleasing to the eye.
However, what if I told you that art is an opportunity to materialize and give life to our feelings? How can you see something “not pretty” in it? If art allows you to express what you feel and bring it to light using an alternative language, how can it not be pretty, or not right, or not for you?
In Art Therapy we don’t see art as something aesthetic, it doesn’t have to be beautiful because IT IS ALREADY BEAUTIFUL JUST BECAUSE IT IS YOURS AND BECAUSE IT IS TRUE.
Without techniques, without schools or norms, what you create during an Art therapy session is a work of art in itself. We don’t want it to be well drawn, to be realistic, to be written without spelling mistakes, for the movement to be professional, for the interpretation to be an Oscar or for your sculpture to deserve a museum, we want you to express yourself however you want, as you like. Looking for anything more than your own truth and expression.
Let’s get rid of limits, let’s get rid of norms that have shrunk us so much during our lives and enjoy Art Therapy in a way in which the result is not what is important, what is important is what you experience and discover in the process.
The road, the journey, the flight and the discovery, not an imperative final perfection.
I release you from your fears, I release you from your self-expectations. In Art Therapy you don’t have to do it well or perfect, but simply be a person who feels and wants to be happy.