Blog Posts

New Year - New Endeavors - New Workshops

1/18/2018

Gallery sitting for my show in October 2017.

It's been a year or more since I've written on this blog - so I've updated my website and will update my blog for the New Year as well. 2017 was a tumultuous and dynamic year with lots of challenges and lots of achievements. I'm hoping 2018 will be as productive and rewarding.

In 2017 I made more art between July and October than I have in the past ten years. I launched my exhibit WOVEN at the Upstream Gallery in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY on October 1, featuring objects woven from recycled materials, painting that combined weaving as an element, and several woven and kinetic sculptures.

Early in the year I also embarked on a new course of training in Somatic Experiencing, which is a body based form of trauma treatment. This has been nothing short of transformative in terms of my own physical and mental well-being, as well as my approach to practice with my own clients. I'm now in my Intermediate level year and can't wait to learn and experience more.

On the theme of training I also spent a transformative ten days up at Haystack Mountain School of Craft on Deer Isle, Maine in June. I can only say this place is magic. From the food to the magnificent 200 foot staircase from the school down to Penobscot Bay. There I took a fibers class from master weaver Marianne Fairbanks from the University of Wisconsin. In those 10 days I learned to spin and felt wool, crochet, make and splice rope, make a net, create a loom, thread and work a complex floor treadle loom, make baskets and a simple kite. Are you exhausted reading that list? Well I didn't sleep for the entire first week.

What I learned there had everything to do with the production of art work over the summer.

I haven't even touched upon the political stuff. I've been phone banking, canvasing, letter writing and marching with my fellow citizens in the defense of our democracy and I have to say its invigorating. 2018 will prove to be even more challenging and I'll be working hard on the November midterm elections.

One of my proudest achievements this past year was a gratitude practice in the form of a blog I started on Martin Luther King Day 2017. This was five days before the inauguration of our current president, at a time when many were anxious and fearful and the government was in turmoil. There was so much negative speech in the media and the news that I felt the need for myself to find more positivity. One Good Thing Daily or OGT DAILY was the result of a walk in the snow which cleared my head and had me appreciating the beauty of the world around me. It occurred to me everyone could use a dose of that and I committed to writing about One Good Thing each day for the 365 days of that year. I have just completed that year and I can say gratitude practice has made my life much better. That is not to say it was all happiness and roses, but on the days where things seemed bleak, when another disgusting tweet had gone out or another outrage had been revealed about abuse of power, looking for the positive had its soothing effects.

OGT DAILY can be found on Blogspot here is the link:http://ogtdaily.blogspot.com/2018/01/ogt-daily-day-three-hundred-and-sixty_66.html

I want to end this blog post by inviting you to attend one of my new workshops in the spring or fall - art journaling, weaving and fiber works, drawing and painting, and mandala and energy work.
See Schedules and Special Workshops for details.

Blessings...

The beach at Haystack Mountain School of Craft where I drew a sand mandala - June 2017.

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Thoughts for a New Year

1/2/2017

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As we enter a new year and perhaps new era of great unknowns ahead, I become more and more convinced of the importance or art in not just my life but the world in general. We can't know what the new administration will do after Jan 20th, but we have a pretty good idea and it could mean drastic change in our civil lives, our health, and our sense of well being. All throughout the Christmas season I have heard others at parties and online speak about the need to become involved and less complacent. I've taken up the call and joined an activist group. I will be marching to fight for my civil liberties, but I've also heard artists speak of their duty to produce works that respond to the racism, hatred, bullying and threat to basic civility that this election has promoted. This was particularly from the acting community, while one young art dealer I spoke with said he felt despondent that "no good art can come out of this. It will all reactionary."

I could not disagree more. My visceral response (beyond becoming more politically active) has been to dive back into the studio. To work in any medium of art be it poetry, painting or drama is to essentially to encounter the unknown and wrestle meaning to light. When I face chaos, tragedy and fear in my life I will use the studio as a place to organize and create a path forward. This is why I believe in the power of art as therapy. I know that it works.

The current show at the MOMA on the Russian Avant Garde art movement speaks to the power of change - revolution reflected and exacted through art. It is both exhilarating and chilling to see as the likes of Rodchenko, Lissistky and Eisenstein rejecting imperialist styles of art in favor of a new abstraction without formal constraints that could represent the will of the common man. There is so much freedom to these images speaking to a new spiritualism after the oppression of centuries of Czarist regimes. The cautionary tale is how they then became enlisted as brutalist motif for a most brutal form of totalitarianism under Stalin.

For good or evil, art is more than just a mirror of the times. Artists must imagine new forms of seeing. With politicians and journalists using language like "we must draw out the possibilities" whether about health care or relations in the Middle East, this is no less a time for artists to be active and imagining the way forward; the way to wrestle meaning from the complex unknown of our world.

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Meditation and Guided Imagery for Therapists

12/16/2016

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January 14, 2017 10:30 am to 1:30 pm - Learn a basic breath based mindfulness meditation and two visual meditations, which can help you or your clients achieve a calm, receptive state which can promote creativity as well as coping skills and stress reduction.

$60.00 - Limited Seating - reserve before January 1, 2017.

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Conversations at the Upstream Gallery

11/25/2016

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Noe Kidder, filmmaker and Mia de Bethune will exhibit together in this group show from Dec 1 to Jan 1 in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, in anticipation of their collaborative installation "The Dark Door" in 2017.

"Gulf Stream" - ribbon sculpture by Mia de Bethune

From "A Paradise of Children" by Noe Kidder

The Upstream Gallery, 8 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706 914-674-8548
Conversations - Group Show
Hours 12:30 to 5:30 Thursday to Sunday
Opening December 4, 2016 from 5 to 7 pm

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The Kobbe Project at The Expressive Therapies Summit

11/25/2016

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November 13 in New York City - Nelly Edmondson and Mia de Bethune, two members of the Kobbe Project team, worked with a group of 15 creative arts therapist to explore narrative threads, try easy, affordable methods of weaving with recycled materials and build a communal web.

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New Workshops for Fall 2015

9/6/2015

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The Kobbe Project at Catwalk Art Residency

9/6/2015

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Part of the "Art from the Site Lines of Nature," Exhibit at Catwalk Institute on Sat, Sept 12, The Kobbe Project weave installations will be on view to the public from
2 to 5 pm. 4 Rt 385, Catskill, NY.

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Doll Making Workshop

10/23/2014

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Doll Making was the project today and there were five of us around the table busily stitching, stuffing and creating soft dolls and other creatures with playful intent.

Participants were asked to bring in a picture, memory or actual doll from their childhood. Lively conversation ensued about Madame Alexander dolls, Swiss Sasha Dolls, Trolls, Barbies, Raggedy Ann, Tiny Tears and Tommy from the Rugrats. We talked about the role dolls played as transitional objects or comfort objects for kids in all circumstances, but especially in the event of a death in the family, divorce or other disruptions in childhood. Dolls were recognized to be important to identification in childhood and for practicing behaviors and working out problems through play.

The goal of the workshop was to learn several simple doll making techniques that did not require expensive or extensive materials and could be made easily with a child in one or two therapy sessions.

Tongue depressor puppets, pipe cleaner dolls, yarn wrapped "worry" dolls, felt dolls, sock dolls and dolls made from old nylons were on the agenda.

The simple acts of repetitive stitching a felt doll or stuffing its body or winding yarn to make a "worry" doll can be biorhythmic and soothing activities for children or adults. This is not even considering the great value as a comfort object to a child when they go to sleep or are distressed and need a reminder of safety.

Pinterest has many good demonstrations for making soft dolls, but I recommend buying some felt, polyester batting, a few buttons and some thread and trying for yourself. Cut out a large 8.5 X 11 size gingerbread shape from paper and use that as your template. The other way to go is to buy brightly colored socks, toe socks and stockings at the dollar store and see what you create from these using buttons and beads for eyes.

Here are our creations:

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Welcome to Fall 2014

9/22/2014

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It's been a long and busy summer. I've been busy writing and weaving at an artists' residency in Catskill, NY - the Catwalk Institute. This silver curtain is made of deer fencing and recycled plastics.

We have an exciting line up of workshops for the fall - come and try one out or sign up for a series.
The following are art journaling offerings. We have raised the price to $40 at the door, but you can still attend for $30 if you sign up for a series of four or your choice.

Playing the Cards You Are Dealt
Sunday, Oct 19, 2014
1:30-3:30

Life gives us all different challenges and opportunities. Do we accept them? Do we compromise? How do we manage? A chance to explore through writing and art making as we move into the challenges of Fall.

$40 including supplies - or $120 for a series of 4
Please specify which session.

As of April 1 we have raised the price to $40 at the door. Buying a series is still $30.

Coming up!
Conjuring Creation
Sunday, Nov 16, 2014
1:30-3:30

When are you at your most creative? We will look at ways to spark and conjure creative moments.

Then we will be making dolls in early October. Come join us!

Simple Doll-making
Sat October 4, 2014
2:30 am to 5:30 pm

For mental health practitioners - or anyone else!
Learn to make simple soft dolls with your clients and
explore the beneficial use of dolls in therapy.

$60

As always there is our peer supervision group:

Art Therapist's Peer Supervision Group
On Monday per month from 7 pm to 8:30 pm

Next group Oct 6, 2014

RSVP to [email protected]

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Edith Kramer's Memorial: Several Generations of Art Therapists - April 26, 2014

5/30/2014

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Edith Kramer 1916-2014

Edith Kramer, the "grandmother of art therapy" died this past February in her home country, Austria, but we all gathered at NYU on a sunny Saturday in April to commemorate her life and work.

What an event it was to see my teachers and my teachers' teachers and my students, now going back almost ten years (some of whom are teaching and mentoring current students) and to feel part of the great legacy left by this tiny woman with apple cheeks and braids on her head.

The event was held at the NYU Art Therapy Department, which Edith started now some forty odd years ago. Ikuko Acosta, Program Director of the department hosted the event with Marygrace Berberian, Program Coordinator, along with help from current students and faculty.

As I like to tell my students, "You are going into a profession where you can still 'touch' those who founded it - literally." Aside from Edith many of the writers and theorists, to whom we often refer, were present in the auditorium to give testimonials, view film footage and view previously unseen photographs of Edith in her youth and throughout her life.

Psychoanalyst and art historian, Laurie Wilson, known for her biographies of sculptors Alberto Giaccometi and Louise Nevelson, helped Edith Kramer found the NYU program and was its first director. Laurie started off the program on April 26 and spoke about Edith's childhood in Vienna.    Edith trained as a teenager with Friedl Dicker-Brandejs, an artist and teacher, and contemporary of Johannes Itten of the Weimar Bauhaus school. In David Henley's film "Honoring Edith" there are several quotes which seem to capture her outlook on art:

"There doesn't need to be a secret language for art."
"Making art esoteric makes it less art."

These reflect the influence of the art vs. craft debate of the early twentieth century in the Bauhaus and the Arts & Crafts movement of the 20's and 30's when the world was enmeshed in war and economic crisis. But it gave birth to a philosophy largely born of Edith Kramer's intellect that art should be a tool or avenue for healing and emotional functionality and should be accessible and not elitist. She learned what healing with art could look like from Friedl Dicker in Czech refugee camps for political prisoners and traumatized children.

Judy Rubin - the "art lady" on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (known to many of us from childhood) is a major contributor to the field as well as an active filmmaker. It was because of her book Child Art Therapy, which I picked up at B&N many years ago, that I decided to become an art therapist.

As an art teacher in the 1950's and 60's, Judy sought out both Edith Kramer and Margaret Naumburg (the other grandmother of art therapy) because she saw that they were approaching art with children in a different way and she wanted to learn from them. Both Edith and Margaret were art educators who had some alliance with psychoanalysis. Edith was indeed born in Vienna to the social and intellectual circle of Sigmund Freud.

Judy compares Edith to Erik Erikson and Anna Freud for her clarity of intellect. Her psychoanalytic training was largely self taught, which gave her an "intellectual freedom" and originality of thought. Edith invited Judy to observe her work with blind children at The Jewish Guild for the Blind in NY and this is where Judy's education as an art therapist and career as a filmmaker seems to have been born. Judy showed footage of a young Edith working with blind children to create clay sculptures. Edith explains in the film that with the clay these children are free to express their "vision" of life without any imposition from the sighted world; giving them a sense of agency and empowerment.

David Henley, well known for his book Clayworks in Art Therapy and his work with children in the autistic spectrum, was Edith's personal assistant for several decades and said of her that, "She took so long to read my thesis that [I would look for things to fix in her studio and] I became a handyman for her." He had "literally thousands of anecdotes" about her and described her abhorrence of anything opulent, her disdain of air conditioning - "chemical air" - and her constant maxim, "The figure must be grounded," - a lesson he seems to have learned well as he has taught us all now for decades how to work with clay in a therapeutic manner. He told hilarious anecdotes of accompanying Edith to national art therapy conferences where she seemed confounded by all the formalities, which were arising in the field which she helped to found. David shared precious footage of Edith, shot by filmmaker James Pruzniak, during her last months in her New York city studio before leaving permanently for Austria.

Martha Haeseler referred to herself, and several of her classmates from the early years of the NYU art therapy program, as Edith's daughters. She and Lani Gerity and Susan Anand and Robin Goodman would accompany Edith to conferences and take care of various chores that needed doing in the program or her studio. Martha quotes Kathy Bard, who now practices in Zurich: "Edith saw us as the future and she shared the actual art she had done with clients in classes with us." Martha told us how Edith taught her students to close their eyes and feel their own face with their hands and then shape it in clay - just as her blind students at the Guild had done. I still remember standing in the darkened studio on Stuyvesant Street doing this exercise. My clay head still sits on my studio shelf as a concrete reminder of my training. Martha said Edith used to have very few teacups in her Van Dam Street studio. If she were serving tea she inevitably would have to clean one out. She told Martha, "I am married to art! What do I need with more teacups?"

I had the extraordinary experience sitting in the audience of watching Martha speak about Edith, while watching Anni Bergman (legendary child psychoanalyst and close friend of Edith's) play with her grandchild on her lap! Anni Bergman described Edith maintaining her connection to the Viennese intelligensia even while living in NY. They shared a love of hiking and Edith with visit Anni at her summer house in New Hampshire where they would hike in the mountains. "Hiking," Anni said, "conjured up anxieties about nature, about being alone and perhaps in danger," but both women found it exhilarating; the challenges of the trail being a way to find one's way in life.

Herschel Stroyman, another lifelong friend of Edith's, brought with him from Toronto a whole lifetime of beautiful B&W photographs he had taken of her over the years. Edith with Eleanor Roosevelt at the Wiltwyck School for troubled boys in the 1950's; Edith with several of her classes from the early years at NYU, Edith in her studio and painting in nature. He described her as a "wordsmith par excellence" and spoke of her masterful article on the unity of process and product and how one cannot exist without the other.

Here is his galllery
http://herschelstroyman.zenfolio.com/p1024744045/h6DF8EFEF#h6df8efef

Lani Gerity spoke last and most eloquently of Edith as foremost a storyteller. She spoke of Edith's loft as being the "transitional space" referred to by D.W. Winnicott as the source of creativity; the place where stillness and possibility give rise to a permissiveness of original ideas - a place where original thought comes from.

She said what she learned from Edith most of all was to, "be inventive and open to the unexpected."

Here is her own tribute:
http://lanipuppetmaker.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-tribute-to-edith-kramer-1916-2014.html

The presentation was followed by a luncheon where these many generations of art therapists were able to catch up and share their favorite memories. Then NYU's Bobst Library offered a tour of the new Edith Kramer Archive organized by archivist Nancy Cricco. Here they are currently preserving her papers, original works of art from her studio and her clients, and other intellectual property. Conservation Librarian Laura McCann showed us around and gave a glimpse of the restoration process with some, by now, very well known works of art - at least to art therapists. The very drawings Edith used as examples in her seminal book Art as Therapy with Children lay before us on the tables. The archivist and her assistants handled them with gloved hands. Discussion ensued about what to do with art products made with "less than archival" materials used in classroom and school settings. Should the tape Edith presumably had placed on a drawing to repair it remain or be removed? A debate ensued among the art therapists in the room. "It should be preserved as part of the third hand technique espoused by Edith, where client and therapist sometimes act as co-creators of an object." I have paraphrased here as I do not have the direct quote nor remember who said it. During this discussion Herschel Stroyman, ever the documentarian, asked if anyone was recording the conversation for posterity. I agreed to turn on my voice-recorder. Another discussion involved whether or not researchers visiting the archive should have access to the back (or verso) of a drawing if a name was written on it. All unanimously agreed that this should not be allowed and violated patient privacy laws even if those patients were long dead and gone.

Laying on a side table was the very whale image drawn by a young boy in a small art therapy group on which Edith famously wrote about sublimation in art making. This was particularly moving to me and reminded me how effective a story teller she had been; how clearly she was able to get her point across about the importance of this image to transform a child's more aggressive urges. Yet the image created on two delicate pieces of cardboard was decaying. Laura was unsure how they were going to approach preserving it. This made me think about all the art I had made with young at-risk boys. Much of it involved things being taped or covered with glitter or other transient, fragile material. I asked Laura what the best method for preserving former client art work was. Her answer was complex and it begged the question: What is our responsibility, as art therapists, to properly archive client work that remains in our possession? The many gathered art therapists considered that the American Art Therapy Association's Ethical Guidelines do not specifically tackle this issue. With the work of the foremost founder of our field now being archived, it does seem a discussion to pursue. I agreed to type up the audio recording of this impromptu debate and write up an article for the AATA Journal to begin the dialogue.

As always, I am learning, and forever admiring of the great minds and creative spirits of the women and men in this field. We owe so much to Edith Kramer. She will be greatly missed.

The Edith Kramer Archive
http://edithkramer.com/UART%20Edith%20Kramer%20Ad.pdf