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Bill Moyers:
"Who interprets the divinity inherent
in nature for us today?
Who are our shamans? Who interprets unseen things for us?"
Joseph Campbell:
"It is the function of the artist to do this.
The artist is the one who communicates myth for today."
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One of my intentions with LSu is to help bridge the gap between what we commonly
recognize as "the healing community" and "the art community." Historically this gap is best understood via the
world of, "outsider art". Secondly, a comparatively small school of thought among "healers" and teachers, philosophers and
writers, therapists and spiritual folks, combines the power of personal healing with the creative drive.
Personally, communally, societally, culturally,
globally: Healing is art and art is healing -- at least it can be - O believe it IS, wether we like
it or are aware of it, or not.
Outsider Art is a recognized
school of thought - so to speak. It is sourced in work by doctors and psychiatrists of Europe who began collecting the art
works of mental patients and prisoners, the hospitalized and dying. The term, Art Brut was adopted eventually as an
umbrella term for this kind of art, which was ALSO primarily self-taught, un-educated in terms of the fine arts, and
rarely "shown".
"The term
Outsider Art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for Art Brut (which literally translates
as “Raw Art”). The interest in "outsider" practices among twentieth century artists and critics can be seen as
part of a larger emphasis on the rejection of established values within the modernist art milieu. The early part of the
20th Century gave rise to cubism and the Dada, Constructivist and Futurist movements in art, all of which involved a dramatic movement away from cultural forms of the past. Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, for example, abandoned "painterly" technique to allow chance operations a role in determining the form of his works, or
simply to re-contextualize existing "readymade" objects as art. Mid-century artists, including Pablo Picasso, looked "outside" the traditions of high culture for inspiration, drawing from the artifacts of "primitive" societies, the
unschooled artwork of children, and vulgar advertising graphics.
Dubuffet's championing of the art of the insane and others at the margins of society is yet another example of avant-garde
art challenging established cultural values.
"Outsider Art" is often applied more broadly,
to include certain self-taught or Naïve art . Much Outsider Art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.
Outsider Art is virtually synonymous with Art Brut in both spirit and
meaning."(quote from the Survivor Art Foundation website. links are active at that site)
In
my own art, and in opportunities I can make available to others, I intend to share the power of using art in the
process of personal healing. This is not about the accepted school of professional "Art Therapy." It is about
a style of life and work, an approach to personal and communal healing, an acceptance of how natural and integral the
symbolic process is in all of our lives. While what I have to say and offer is more than likely very true
of any body of art -- my primary interest is with "outsider art" and includes specifically the art and healing work
of Survivors of Trauma.
It is within the interaction between you and the art materials that
the power of creative expression lives.
There is always an artist within. Most people need ways to be free of fear, judgements,
self-questioning, comparison, criticism, the anxiety around being "seen".
Given the right space, and permission, everyone CAN experience their own power
to create. We CAN safely feel heard and seen, if only by ourselves, through the activity of creation.
Is Art connected to SPIRITUALITY? of course. It IS a spirituality.
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You will find below the first entrances
into a future annotated bibliography of my personal primary influences from the arts and the healing worlds.
Expect this list to grow and become fully detailed. If you have suggestions for the list, please email me
here, anirose@livingstonesunlimited.com
When the Spirits Come Back, Janet O'Dallet
On Art and Therapy, Martina Thompson
both of the listings above are out of print and hard to find. However, they are worth every effort.
Art as Medicine, and other works by Shaun McNiff
Art as Healing, and other works by Edward Adamson
The Hands of the Living God, Marion Milner
more listings to come:
works on the history and essence of OUTSIDER ART (see links on My Blog)
notebooks and personal writings of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Georgia O'Keefe', Wolfi, Klimt., Van
Gogh, Gabrielle Villa ...
such thinkers as Jung and Freud, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Einstein, Jospeh Campbell, Annie Dillard, Emily
Dickinson ...
and those from the "healing" community such as
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