Profusion Art: Pansy

Showing posts with label Pansy. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

WEEK 3

You’ve heard the sentence: A penny for your thoughts. Well, now you can offer a penny for a pansy—even a drawn one. (Read my May first weeks introduction if you don’t know why.)

Several years ago I did some research for a college term paper on the combined use of art and writing as therapy for illness and depression. I learned that writing, or journaling, uses the left side of the brain and helps us map out and make sense of life’s experiences. It also allows us to unburden ourselves as if to a friend. I learned that doing art, in this case expressive art, uses the right side of the brain to create pictures that further help us express our emotions—especially emotions we find hard to put into words. I was surprised to learn that art and writing, combined, proved to be even more effective in treating depression and stress than medication. As I looked at the expressive artwork of the test patients, I could see that some of them found artwork to be natural and others found it to be awkward. It got me thinking how nice it would be to offer all people a little jump-start in the form of picture choices they might put together into a collage of self-expression. With a few art tips, anyone, artist or not, can fly with expressive art and replace a moment of sadness or boredom with pure fun. So, my “Profusion Art” was born.

If you are interested in reading a condensed version of my term paper, including sited references in smaller print, click on the picture of the brain above.
by Marie Scott

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Friday, May 17, 2013