Arting as Therapy – Arting: Art As Conversation

Art therapy uses creative processes to promote healing, with a wide definition of healing. Arting has taught me the therapeutic value of being with and around art.

I know people who have experienced similar healing effects by visiting museums or galleries or artist studios. Recently, in need of a bit of healing myself, I visited InLight, an annual art exhibition in Richmond held at night in outdoor venues. It includes art of all sorts – multimedia, performance, community-based, sculpture. What connects them is that all use light-based platforms so the art experience occurs at night, in the dark.

The darkness is a place for healing. You can settle into its nothingness, focusing on the art as your lifeline to the wider world. The art mediates your experience with the dark. Take a walk with me through darkness to see some of the pieces.

The first thing on the path is Cellular Illumination by Flooded Sun, a light show of cells rippling across a former Tuberculosis Hospital in rainbow colors, changing forms, evolving as cells, and us humans, do. In its history, the hospital was whites only with a separate black infirmary. And much of the art exhibit addressed that history, using light to illuminate, art to heal.

The next installation is Carry Us Home by Monique Lordon.

This piece is to remind us that our hands heal by their capacity to hold, carry and build. The art responds to Toni Morrison’s call for healing and black revival. Seeing it whole gives a sense of size and scope, reminding us that healing as a collective is larger than life.

But I found getting close to the details of it to be more empowering. In this version, we can see two hands touching. For me, the closeness of two is more accessible than many hands. Maybe because I’m an introvert, I am more comfortable experiencing people in small numbers. Because through that higher level of intimacy, I develop more empathy for people plural. With too many people, it feels superficial and forced. Realness is about closeness and that is only available to me in small spaces.

The size of it, ironically and counterintuitively, allowed me access to multiple levels of intimacy. So different types of people can find their space, within the spaces created by the hands.

As I wondered along the dark path, navigating tree branches, dark spots, and many other people, I ran into this by Izz Anabtawi. The Ax part of a bigger Candle Residence piece. I was drawn to this one for several reasons. The ax in the tree stump connects history, present and future. It is both a world in which we relied on nature, we are destroying nature and we will need to recapture and reconceptualize our relationship with nature. The healing piece of this for me is the way it integrates fear and hope, possibility and threat, stillness and action – because living with those contradictions is the most human truth of all. We need reminders of that every now and then.

Before ending this post, I want to share one last sculpture. It was not a part of InLight (and was not lit up) but a regular feature of Pine Camp Arts and Community Center, where the event was held. Meet Lolly the Bear, created by Firefly Scenic Studio. Lolly welcomed us and bid us farewell that evening. A metal sculpture from recycled material, she is a repository for recyclables for those visiting the grounds.

As I left InLight, I waved good-bye to Lolly, breathed in the fresh air, and felt all the better for it. Art as an experience is a great place to escape to for immersion, adventure and growth. Which is one of the reasons we started Arting.

Have you used art to heal a hurt or a fear? Share your story with us. We’d love to hear it.