‘Drawing as Performance a means of Therapeutic Practice to Manage Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsive Habits.’

In my artistic research drawing as a means of therapy - the idea of the artist using reflection as a creative process and by looking into the liquid depths of the gouache paint finding the darkest corners of their minds there. Rational emotive psychotherapy offers more suitable techniques for passive successful outcomes to mental health as compared to intensive activity (Ellis, p.190) As an expressionist artist reflection upon these drawings within this way are hugely significant towards a serious contemporary practice and should be to be conceived as so by using art as therapeutic practice recording of direct observation of the surrounding landscape of nature. With this in mind the encounters with nature are noteworthy because they remind us that nature is something we are always meaning to get more interested in for improved mental well – being (de Botton, Armstrong, 2013 p.124) Which segways into this idea of ‘psychogeography’ translates into the study of how geographical environments, both natural and built, affect human emotions and behaviour. By experiencing nature through walking within the reserve.   

References:

Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and Emotion and psychotherapy. Secaucus, Nj: The Citadel Press.

De Botton, A. and Armstrong, J. (2013). Art as Therapy. London: Phaidon Press Limited.

copyright Thomas Palmer