Collage for Creative Therapy

This is one of the many collages that I created in my time living in Brooklyn, NY. Titled Opposing Life Forces, for me it represents the duality of extreme feelings I was experiencing at the time.

I have struggled with anxiety and depression most of my life and have discovered that through collaging, piecing together disparate images that originally had no context to one another, is an incredible outlet for expression. When finished, it becomes a new and often surprising piece resulting in feelings of calm and cohesion. This sense of happiness seemed elusive during these difficult moments in my life, but through collage was attainable.

Artist Kathleen Carillo has said, "the creation of an art collage from the soul is an inner journey that allows your soul to speak to you," and I couldn't agree more. Collaging has allowed me to release my difficult emotions when I needed to, as well as find the beauty in them.

Later, I received my Masters in Creative Arts Therapy and Creativity Development and recognized that collage is a process of intuition by following the images that one connects with. There is power in this process, intuitive collage, as it can help one to "meet" and accept the inner parts of the self that one does not normally express. This has been my experience in this way of creating.

My graduate school thesis explored the effects of my father’s Vietnam combat related PTSD on my development. There was a lot of chaos in my family of origin and as a child it was difficult to make sense of it. This sort of family dynamic is referred to in psychology as “disorganized.” My collage work was a way for me to organize feelings of chaos. Reviewing my artwork over my years of high school, undergraduate art school, and beyond, I noticed a theme of attempting to put together parts and pieces that didn’t make sense on their own but as the artist, I was able to find a way to integrate them. This process was a pathway to understand and form my identity and a cohesive sense of self, which was disorganized and fragmented from my early childhood experiences. The creative process I embarked on throughout this time, presented the significance of art making in forming understanding. Art making is such a meaningful journey to finding a whole by piecing together the fragments.

I have boxes and boxes of magazines and images I had cut out of their pages, as well as pages that I had not decided how to deconstruct but was drawn to. I would sit on the floor spreading these images out and selecting the ones I was drawn to and then begin arranging them together finding the way they wanted to connect. Sometimes the scissors would deconstruct the original image, other times the scissors would allow me to make the images neat by cutting away irregular or unwanted parts.

There is such mental focus involved in this process of cutting out these images. It is almost a meditative process as I surround myself in chaos and get to make sense of it in some way with a finished collage. I find that this process can also provide a brief respite from the busy noise of life- how nice! I also enjoy embellishing these artworks with watercolor, ink, and other materials. This is all part of the integrative process of collaging.

In my own art making, these collages have brought me such joy, and I know in my soul that creativity and happiness do go hand in hand. This has inspired me to start my own business offering creative opportunities to all ages. It is my passion to share the benefits of art making with people of all skill levels so that they may experience that same happiness.