Art Therapy

[ChrissyMarie]

Well, with Andestine getting in touch, I realised I had been doing a lot of reading and not much posting.
Some of this was circumstancial, I was in a pretty bad car accident back in March. To cut a long story short I was pretty messed up, I banged my face and head up a bit, I fractured my knee and also had considerable ligament damage. It stopped me in my tracks somewhat...
About then I was seriously getting into my macro photography, but all of my photography was upruptly halted because of my lack of mobility.
Due to some pretty bad headaches my concentration levels were also at an all time low.
However, a lot of people were very kind and my blogging friends sent me good wishes from throughout the world which was amazing
As a result, I did some very small pieces of art. It was much easier to concentrate on small pieces so I did a series of ATC's (aka Artist Trading Cards), for those that don't know, these are just small pieces of art just a bit bigger than a credit card.
I then put them all in a little booklet together with some quotes and poems and sent them to a whole lot of people who had been wonderfully supportive.
I think with the exception of "the marbles" which I had indeed lost, they pretty much fit in with a wildlife theme....



They are all in coloured pencil, easy to pick up and put down...

This is just a few of the small pieces of work. For the pamphlet cover, I used an image of a butterfly drawn in coloured pencils and then digitally manipulated it a little to make it just a little more abstract!



I am lots better and thankfully have moved on a long way from this. But, this seemed a good place to recap....

[Deb London]

Beautiful artwork! So sorry to hear of your accident though. Sounds truly horrendous.

[Martin Wilson]

Well good to hear that you are well and back in shape so to say ChrissyMarie. You have always had the skill to do such simply hard detail look so easy... I know that is not the case... you style is so relaxed looking yet is so stunning to admire.
Hey Marbles are made from sand...or if needed to be correct silica.... that is found out in the wild is it not... so hey connection !! simples
Good to see you again as well ChrissyMarie.

Martin

[Andestine]

Chrissie,

Such a lot of frustration and suffering you’ve been through. And ligaments take an age to recover. So glad to hear you’re on the mend now, and I think you can be forgiven for not feeling like doing much art while all that was going on.

And isn’t it wonderful to have supportive cyberfriends around the world. I can never understand people who berate cyberlife and say such friends aren’t ‘real’. Mine are often more real to me than First life friends, they’re just further away that’s all

Also great to hear you’re into macro photography too. I’m completely entranced with it since starting last March

I really love the cover of your pamphlet ; it’s beautifully designed And the drawings are lovely. In particular, the delicate colours on the shell are delicious, you have a great sense of depth in the blue flower, and the light shining through the marbles is wonderfully rendered

I’ve always been an admirer of ATC’s but never done any. Seeing yours makes me want to try

But I’m also very curious about the quotes and poems you chose to go with the drawings. As long as they’re wildlife-related I think it would be fine to post some here if you wanted to, as the term ‘art’ includes music, literature and poetry, and there’s no place else for wildlife writings etc. on WAB as far as I know (but I’ll be happy to be corrected on this if I’m wrong). I posted some favourite bits of poetry when I first came and it didn’t get moved or deleted, neither did I get punished by a mod with a big hammer!

If you wanted to start a kind of wildlife quotes and poems thread, I’d love to contribute too…but don’t let me pressurize you; you know how carried away I can get when I’m all enthusiasm!

Anyway, great to see you posting again, and look forward to seeing many more.

Cheers,

Andestine


P.S.

I don’t know if I mentioned this before on list (and forgive me if I have), but I wanted to share a story about art therapy.

I had a friend many years ago who had invasive breast cancer. We ran a small art club together and she loved working with pastels. She wanted to draw when she was in Southampton undergoing treatment, but couldn’t afford the materials.

As we were both broke, I wrote to Rowneys and they sent her a large box of the best soft pastels for free.

She used them to draw after radiotherapy and chemotherapy whilst still in hospital, and she told me that the medics were amazed to find that her white blood cell count would rise when she was drawing, and for some time after. I wrote to Rowneys about this and they put us in touch with a researcher at Dukes University who had been looking into this effect.

My friend died eventually, but she swore that doing art until the end kept her alive much longer than she would have done otherwise. I didn’t follow up on the research at the time because I was so sad at the loss of such a gentle and kind friend, but I have since wondered if anything was published on the relationship between art therapy and the immune system. Must find out one day.

And I’ll always remember the kindness of Rowneys. My friend was deeply touched by their generosity.

[loripo]

Eryri started a poerty thread recently...
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...ost683163.html

[ChrissyMarie]

@ Deb, it was awful at the time but so much better now. I think I have become even more aware than I was before of the little things too. If that were possible

@ Martin, thanks a lot for the lovely comments. I would say that quite a few times in the summer, I have actually digitally played with photo's as well as my art and a lot was your influence

@ Andestine agreed about the cyber friends, in fact I have met some of my artist ones since chatting online and found them to be a really great bunch of people offline too.

Thank you for the lovely comments. I can thoroughly recommend ATC's especially if you have a busy lifestyle or feel a little uninspired. A small butterfly or dragonfly and away you go.....

I used quite famous poems to go with them, For the tete a tete, I used Daffodils by William Wordsworth

And to go with the snowdrop:

Where are you going fairy child
As the day draws nigh
Closing your wings and bowing your head
While moonbeams dance in the sky.

Which I wish I could take the credit for but it is based on a poem that I can very vaguely recall as a child that I have never been able to find again. I had a very old, old book...

Then just silly quotes like:

If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with a little rain.

I always intended to add to it further and then self publish a book but I think I would need to get together with a poet....
Mine is a little dodgy to say the least, LOL

That is a very interesting story about your friend (although very sad) and how lovely of Rowney's I know when my Mum went in for treatment for her depression, they provided art and craft classes. Not that it did her any good, she hasn't got an artistic bone in her body, bless her and thinks it is all a waste of time! Hey, ho

@ Loripo Thanks for the link to that thread. Wow there are some very talented people in there! I think I shall just enjoy looking...
I seem to remember you always have a knack for coming up with fabulous poetry to suit any occasion

[Andestine]

Just took a look. Perfect! And something else to enjoy at leisure later.

Thanks Lori, don't go to the Treehouse much as I can't risk getting interested in many more sections on WAB, or risk reaching critical mass with postings, so wouldn't have seen it otherwise

Cheers,

Andestine