For open choice I created a sculpture using chicken wire, plaster wrap, found materials and fabric. I chose sculpture because it feels like the method of just creating an abstract sculpture is not often seen/used in art therapy however I see it being created by artists with disabilities whose artwork is often featured and sold at Creative Growth and Center 4 Creative Works. I find the act of making an abstract 3D sculpture similar to doing a 2D version of found art, assemblage or collage, maybe the one difference being that 3D can present more challenges, which can be a positive or negative depending on the population. I chose adults with somatic symptoms and related disorders because I think these clients are often functioning from a very cognitive place. They are constantly over thinking and in result are creating ailments and conditions that could very well be prevented if they were able to relieve some anxiety and obsessive thoughts and perhaps incorporate some CBT related therapy. I think for this reason one could do this project as part of CBT, and weekly be sent home with “homework” that would inform their next step in this process.
I started with the chicken wire, a very malleable material that can also be painful to use if one does not have gloves. One would need to have good hand/finger dexterity being that you do need to use wire cutters. I then shaped an abstract form with nothing in mind. I just squished parts of it together and connected the ends to make a bulbous shape. I was given plaster wrap as a pregnancy gift to make a mold out of my pregnant belly but I never got around to doing that, so I used the plaster wrap from that which was helpful being that this is a costly purchase (something to think about). Once I began applying the plaster wrap, I kept thinking about what I had that could be used and my mind quickly went to fabric scraps. I began thinking about my identity and how these materials could represent this newfound domesticity in some way and incorporated an old mop head, using parts of that.
Parts of this project for me felt very sensory based. For instance, dipping the plaster wrap into water has a sliminess to it. It reminded me of the papermaking process in which I quickly realized this might be bothersome for certain individuals who have an aversion to slimy textures. The other sensory component was manipulating pointy, sharp chicken wire. Like I noted earlier, wearing gloves would probably be helpful for this reason, so that drawing blood is avoided. However, what is good about sensory is that it would ignite an emotional response for a population who is very much in their head and overthinking. Further, for most of this process I was in the affective component. When working with adults who have somatic symptoms I think it would be helpful to evoke emotion and the sculpture and challenges presented could be used to speak about the function and purpose of these emotions. I think bringing up the emotions that arise from doing this more complex method of art making and correlating that with the 6-12 emotions hardwired into the brain that Hinz mentions (p. 102), would be a super helpful way to have the adults understand that emotions and begin to work through them with the help of CBT (Hinz, 2016).
Hinz, L. D. (2019). Expressive therapies continuum: A framework for using art in therapy. New York, NY. Routledge.
