Gratitude

This thesis work would not have been possible without the courageous participation of my art therapy clients, as well as Torkin Wakefield and the Ugandan women of Bead for Life. Below is the dedication from my written thesis (the final bound version totaling nearly 90 pages!), and please do not hesitate to contact me for any further resources, excerpts, or other information.

In celebration of the strength and resilience of women everywhere,
with special acknowledgment to those underserved and living with HIV/AIDS.

With gratitude for the support of the department faculty, my peers in the program,
and the SVA Alumni Society for their first award of $2,000 to a thesis project in Art Therapy.

In honor of my ancestors who were jewelers to royalty in India,
and to whom I owe my family name, Jhaveri, which means “jeweler” in the Gujarati language.

Update

Coming full circle, today marks one year since I began this blog, and since the last World AIDS Day. In this year the thesis discussed in this blog was completed, and I graduated with a Masters of Professional Studies in Art Therapy. These images are from the final presentation of the thesis work.

A collage of images of the Ugandan Bead for Life women (http://www.beadforlife.org).

Closeup images of paper beads made from strips of recycled magazine paper, by women living with HIV/AIDS
in Uganda (left) and in New York (right). Drawn instructions for creating beads (center).

Image 2: Full image of giant paper bead (about 48” x 24”), an ongoing collaborative piece created in art therapy group sessions. Instead of rolling this bead like the smaller ones, the clients decided to leave it open to display their choice of words and images corresponding to the three sectioned themes of past (purple), present (green), and future (red). Closeup (bottom) of bottom of piece, where clients hung small paper beads from women in both locations.

Individual collages created by art therapy clients in New York to send to Ugandan women
as part of penpal exchange (photos blurred for confidentiality purposes).

Individual collages created by Ugandan women in response as part of a penpal exchange.

This research determined that women living with HIV/AIDS benefit from the group art therapy experience, within which a safe space can reduce isolation through interaction with peers. The use of materials which would otherwise be thrown away was especially significant with this population. For a group of people who have been effectively discarded by society because of their diagnosis, the use of recycled magazine paper allowed them to explore a sense of self-worth (processing shame, rejection, and alienation through the artmaking process). While the knowledge of the women in Uganda offered perspective, inspiration, and an understanding of universality, the connections formed between the women within the art therapy groups proved to be the most meaningful.

Several clients reported that the environment and activities within these groups allowed them to feel calm or at peace, which is how the group was named, PEACE BEADS.

Art Therapy and the Elephant

An excerpt from Art Therapy Practice: Innovative Approaches with Diverse Populations by Harriet Wadeson

An old Indian fable tells of the six blind men who argued over the nature of the elephant. One felt its side and said the elephant is like a wall. Another, feeling its tusk, said the elephant is like a spear. The third felt its trunk and said the elephant is like a snake. The fourth found the leg to be like a tree; the fifth, touching the ear, said the elephant is like a fan; and the sixth seized the tail and described the elephant as a rope. Each blind man was partly right, though all were wrong.

Five human service providers who work with art therapists attempt to explain what art therapy is. The first, who is a teacher at an elementary school, says art therapy helps her children with attention deficit disorder to settle down and concentrate. The second, who works with abused and neglected children, says that art therapy gives them a means to express the traumas that they cannot put into words. The third, who works on a hospital psychiatric unit, says that her patients overcome their isolation by painting their hallucinations and delusions so that she can share their private worlds. The fourth, who works with families at an outpatient clinic, says her families have gained insight through their drawings of their relationships and have made changes in their family dynamics. The fifth, who works at a nursing home, speaks of drawings for life review and socialization with the other residents. All are correct about what art therapy is, but each has a different picture. None has the big picture.

What is art therapy? Separately the blind men reply:

• It is the lonely child locked in a wordless prison creating sunshine with crayons.
• It is the pieces of a woman, shattered by rape, slowly melding together in a clay form of her intact body.
• It is the spiraling visions clashing and parting on paper painted by a man in a hospital who sees what others do not.
• It is the feeble scratching of an ancient woman whose words have failed, making her mark.

What is art therapy? Together the blind men grasp the whole:

• It is the legacy of the dying, the plottings of the living, and the pain made visible by those in between.
• It is the rivers of separate circumstances, private privations, and lonely hauntings flowing together in tides of shifting reflections streaming toward a deep sea of intermingled humanity.
• It is the fixity of the stars in which the evanescent dust of living is coalesced in images.

SVA Exhibit

An exhibit through my graduate art therapy program at the School of Visual Arts will feature both client artwork and student responses. The theme of this show is CONTAINMENT, which is a sense of safety allowing clients to explore themselves through their art. The giant paper bead that the women created will be on display, as well as my own visual response. I will posting photos of the show soon, including both completed pieces.

Please contact me for more information if you are interested in visiting this exhibit.

Scholarship & Press Coverage

I have some very exciting updates for anyone who has been following my work.

I was recently awarded a SVA Alumni Society Scholarship for $2,000 towards materials for this project! Of course it is any art therapist’s dream to receive this type of funding to see such ideas move closer to reaching their true potential. I also learned that this is the first award of its kind to be given to a student in the Art Therapy department.

As the member of a field gradually emerging into public interest (including a recent article in TIME OUT magazine), I am also excited to share that there may be some press coverage of my thesis work. This news is again a great honor, and I will have more information posted here as it becomes available.

Through this recognition, I have realized that I am experiencing what I hope to create for my clients. Others are interested and take the time to hear my story, how I got to this place in life, and genuinely appreciate who I am. If this work has been or will be successful in any form, it will be when the women I work with feel the same way.

As an update on the groups, the women have continued to create beads and individual collages to send to the women in Uganda who inspired the project. With the recent funding, they will be able to make jewelry with the beads and be empowered by developing their own ideas for the future of our work together.

Thesis Images

Image 1: A collage of images of the women in Uganda

(through the Bead for Life organization, more info available at http://www.beadforlife.org/).


Image 2: A closeup of the beads made by women in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS,

using strips of recycled magazine paper.

Image 3: Closeup of paper beads made by women living with HIV/AIDS in NY
(art therapy clients).

Image 4: Full image of giant paper bead (about 48” x 24”), an ongoing collaborative piece created in art therapy group sessions. Instead of rolling this bead like the smaller ones, the clients decided to leave it open to display their choice of words and images corresponding to the three sectioned themes of past (purple), present (green), and future (red).

Image 5: Closeup of border on giant paper bead, where clients have begun to hang the smaller paper beads, alternating beads made by the women in Uganda with those created by the women here in NY.

Scholarship Application

The following accompanied a scholarship application, to be granted $2,000 for this research in the form of supplies. It summarizes my work thus far, which is in progress so feedback is greatly appreciated!


As a second year MPS candidate in Art Therapy at SVA, I have been extremely fortunate to work with two unique populations during my graduate studies. My first year clinical internship was at a residential skilled nursing facility for children/adolescents living with HIV/AIDS, and my current internship is at a health center providing services to women with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Of the 33.2 million people living with HIV worldwide, 15.4 million are women (UNAIDS Epidemic Update 2007). Most turn a deaf ear to the stigmatized global issue of HIV/AIDS, overwhelmed by the epidemic which needs that much more attention. Though awareness is gradually increasing, many still associate the illness solely with homosexual men or third world countries. Furthermore, medical advancements extending lives have generated apathy, minimizing the tremendous number of ongoing physical and emotional challenges those infected face everyday.

Being around children, adolescents, and now women living with HIV/AIDS, I have realized that each of these individuals has an incredibly rich and layered story to tell, though they struggle to be accepted or genuinely heard. Often discarded by society because of their diagnosis, they in fact are among those who would benefit most from interaction with others. In facilitating these healing connections, my thesis research explores how art therapy can provide opportunities for containment and exchange of the stories of these women living with HIV/AIDS.

In initial group sessions, the clients were introduced to a project inspired by women in Uganda who are also living with HIV/AIDS. The women in Uganda create paper beads out of recycled strips of magazine paper, making and selling jewelry internationally in order to empower themselves and eradicate poverty. After hearing the stories of these Ugandan women, the clients were then provided instructions and materials to make paper beads themselves. While rolling each bead the women shared their personal stories verbally within the group. The clients also collaborated to create a giant paper bead, covered in collage of words and images representing three themes universally expressed in their stories: past, present, and future (see images in following post).

In ongoing groups, the women will continue to create paper beads and jewelry with the beads, work on the giant paper bead, and also create a variety of artwork, letters, and possibly videos to send to the women in Uganda (as I am in touch with the founder of the Bead for Life organization). I think that this exchange is crucial in facilitating their healing, in forming a reparative exchange after contracting a life threatening illness. Most importantly, this exchange can remind these women that they are not alone in the issues and themes that they deal with each day.

The accompanying budget includes ongoing expenses identifiable for this project, including bead making supplies, jewelry making supplies, storage, postage to/from Uganda, materials for the exchange of art/letters/etc., and costs for display and documentation of the artwork created.

This project is the culmination of a great deal of planning and research, and thus far the results demonstrate that international art therapy truly has potential to heal suffering and change lives. With presentations and publication of this work already being requested, I feel confident that this scholarship would assist in reaching the true potential of this exchange, ultimately benefiting women in both countries. Working on this scale before even graduating ensures that my deep passion for international art therapy will continue to inspire similar projects in my future career in the field.

This research is humanistic, as observational gathering of qualitative, phenomenological information occurring both verbally and in the artwork during sessions. Consent forms were signed and there are no known emotional risks to the participants. Process and progress notes, response artwork, and supervision consistently accompany and support this ongoing work with the clients.

What is Art Therapy?

A question I am asked often, and struggle to answer briefly.

Personally, I have found that art therapy is an alternative language, facilitating access to the unconscious in ways most of us may not be able to verbalize. It is a powerful field that I feel fortunate to have found, and it is quickly gaining recognition and acceptance though it has existed for over 50 years. Art therapists work with individuals and groups, in a variety of settings including in hospitals, schools, treatment centers, businesses, and private practices. My personal interests and goals within art therapy are quickly branching into international work.

Below is a link to a video which was presented at the 2007 American Art Therapy Association conference, which I attended in Albuquerque, New Mexico in November. The video captures this powerful work in an accessible and inspiring way, hope you enjoy it!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5jY4s-3UEjg&feature=related

One of many links with more information (AATA website): http://www.arttherapy.org/about.html

World AIDS Day

December 1st is World AIDS Day and I find myself overwhelmed with thoughts to share.

To begin, I should introduce that I am a graduate student for Art Therapy, at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. My first year clinical internship through this program was with children/adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. By coincidence, my second year and current internship population is women living with HIV/AIDS.

Despite the mourning of those lost to the epidemic, and the challenges in battling the current global crisis, I know I am one of many setting intentions forth for change today. In remembrance, I feel deeply motivated and empowered to share my passion for this topic in this forum.

Some may see the acronyms HIV/AIDS and stop reading, but for those who continue, there are incredible amounts of updated information available now. Specifically about women, of the 33.2 million people living with HIV worldwide, 15.4 million are women (statistics from UNAIDS AIDS Epidemic Update 2007). Many do not know that this problem no longer only effects gay men, or that very real issues exist outside of Africa. Furthermore, many who have heard that recent advances in medication are helping many live longer with the illness, do not see beyond these strides. Those who are fortunate enough to have medication have a tremendous ongoing repercussions (both physical AND emotional) which still effect them each day.

To put yourself into the mindset of someone living with HIV/AIDS takes a great deal of empathy, and I am just beginning to understand what it might be like. Can you imagine waking up each morning with fear of the battle raging within your own body? Can you imagine having to take a very strict regimen of medications with no future guarantees? Can you imagine the pain of memories related to how you might have contracted the illness? Can you imagine the complex and intense fears, anxieties, expectations, memories, hopes, dreams, and experiences you might have if you were living with HIV/AIDS?

I realize some may wonder if my soapbox doubles as a collection box, but at least for now, it does not. In all honesty, I am finding this process revealing about incorporation of what most deeply moves me into my graduate thesis, and any/all feedback and greatly appreciated. And in essence, I am merely sharing my insights on HIV/AIDS and hope you can find value in my words.