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FEATURED ARTWORK
Trudy Kim | Heading Towards Hope Out of dark, uncertain times, we strive toward light and the promise of resuming our lives with hope and certainty. |
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Alanna Betts | Floating Grief
5"x7", Watercolor on Paper. IG @alannajoy.art To protect our loved ones and ourselves from COVID-19, we gave up traditions and rhythms, closeness and comfort. We isolated when we needed connection. Between June and July of 2020, I lost my sweet grandmother and my beloved step-father. Without the comfort of a funeral, the music in a familiar church sanctuary, or the gathering of family and stories; the grief felt suspended as if it was floating without a place to land. |
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Alanna Betts | Smoking Mountain Sunset
18"x24", Oil on Canvas While the COVID-19 crisis required careful quarantine at home, I found in myself a craving for the landscapes beyond my windows. Although I could not visit those places in person, I was able to visit them through my art work. This piece was an escape to the mountains of south-west Virginia and east Tennessee that I grew up in. A place that still feels like home. |
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Gioia Chilton | Art Journal Page 2020
IG @gioiachilton Art journaling in 2020 was a lifeline. I was often struck by how blessed we were – and are! – and how resilient in the face of really difficult and tragic global circumstances. This image captures an expression that seems more hopeful than I felt, and felt like a reminder of better times |
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Rick Conway | Chorus Interuptus
Frogs have become an important symbol of transformation and growth for me over the last five years. During the pandemic, I was challenged by the lack of personal connection to friends, family, and clients while being forced into a state of isolation with a continuous feeling of fear for the future. This canvas began as a dark exploration of those feelings and many more, but as so many things around us began to show the potential for new life so did the canvas. The imagery of hopelessness and horrors that had erupted all around us, transformed into imagery of new life. |
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Tracy Councill | Prayer Flag Portraits
IG: @Woodblockprints Last summer I became involved in some of the BLM protests. I often print linoleum blocks onto cloth to create "Prayer Flags," representing things I am concerned about. I carved portraits of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and printed them on muslin to make strings of prayer flags to display on my house and share with friends. |
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Tracy Councill | Woodland Adventure Game
Early in the pandemic lockdown, I learned the story of the creation of the original Candyland game. A young schoolteacher who was hospitalized on a polio ward designed it to distract and amuse the children who were polio patients with her. Since I work with medically ill children, this story really touched me. I was inspired to make my own game, based on my childhood ramblings in the woods. Eventually, I printed it onto cloth and sewed it into little board games. |
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Vicky Dorn-Fontana | Social Distancing
Social Distancing is a paper collage made with ripped paper and paper tubes to create a mosaic appearance, add depth and dimension. This collage is meant to capture the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on our inherent nature to be social. During the period of Covid-19, social injustice, climate change and a divided America, it has exposed a wide range of intense emotions experienced by many. This can be overwhelming. In order to adapt I have used my art to portray the various stages of these emotions that I have encountered over the past few years. My art has allowed me to express those feelings. The result is a permanent visual expression of what has become our "new reality". It feels so unfamiliar yet daunting as I awake each morning realizing the future leaves me with a very uncertain sense of what the long-term effects of this time, will have on all of us. |
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Vicky Dorn-Fontana | Remarkable Strength
During this period of Covid-19, I have experienced a wide range of intense and varied emotions. It can be overwhelming at times. I use my art to express those feelings. I wake each morning realizing the future leaves me with an uncertain yet daunting concern of what the long-terms effects of this time will have on all of us. Remarkable Strength is a paper collage. It is made with ripped paper and paper tubes to create a mosaic appearance, add depth and dimension. This collage depicts women exhibiting their beauty, their power and their strength to endure and persevere regardless of the circumstances in their lives. |
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Michelle Vaughan Eldridge | Waiting
IG: @Meeshythings21 It takes immense strength to simply wait and isolate from the ones you love most. This was my experience as a new mom struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety in isolation. As much as I desperately wanted to get out and receive in person support, I also knew I was protected, as was the rest of my family. It was a waiting game and I am so grateful it finally seems to be slowly coming to an end. |
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Emmy Lou Glassman | Allowing Focus to Loosen; Percolating, Humming Along, Part of a Constellation of COVID-19; She's Breaking the Glass Ceiling; Taking Care Inside
Keeping a mini-mandala visual journal gave me a frequent outlet for the roller-coaster of life called COVID 19. My own experiences with personal loss, family milestones, day-to-day survival, culinary creativity, media overload, just plain FEAR, and deep sense of altruism, were deposited in this journal. Now, looking back at the pages, I am grateful for the accepting space they afforded me. |
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Emmy Lou Glassman | Patience with Spring
Just as my community was being afforded the blessing of vaccinations and Spring was beckoning with beautiful weather and gorgeous flowers and foliage, my allergies burst into bloom as well. My wait to join the world was extended while I prayed for low pollen counts and rain-washed air. Until then, Spring continued to bloom outside the window. |
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Peggy Healy | Hail Mary Full of Grace
During the covid pandemic, I have seen those who have - GIVE and those who were in need RECEIVE. Let us give thanks. |
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Peggy Healy | Portrait of a Lady
Torn paper artwork Women have had many roles in our history. May we never forget these heros, and look ahead to a future of Equality, Justice, Respect, Compassion, Understanding and Love. |
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Kelly Jacobs | Nature Made
IG: @kellyjacobs.arttherapy This past year presented so many challenges. I found myself wanting to simplify and slow down to prevent from becoming overwhelmed. As I often do, I turned to nature for inspiration and guidance. In this piece I created my own watercolors from crushed dried rose petals and trusted my intuition to guide me in what shapes and lines felt right. Through this process of making (along with many other similar experiments), I have found that creativity can flourish within situations of limitation. |
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Kelly Jacobs | Evanescent Objects
This meditation in found objects provided space for finding new ways to create with what is on hand, honoring the moment, and acknowledging that our world is ever changing. In sweeping away the objects, the artist can start again - finding new possibilities within each new creation. Within this practice, I realized that we are not stuck, There are ways to see things differently, to do things differently. |
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Lori Kenepp | Flags for Mending and Repair
Flags for Mending and Repair was a daily textile mending activity created in January 2021 as part of the Fun-A-Day creative experience (funadaydc.org). Each fabric swatch represents a day in January. Swatches are hung sequentially from a cotton twill tape. This project is modeled after Tibetan Prayer Flags which spread goodwill and positive energy as they flap in the wind. These Flags for Mending and Repair send out goodwill for restoration as well as transformation of what is damaged, ripped, and torn apart. |
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Trudy Kim | Gifts from the Moon
The sage comes bearing gifts from the moon. It bears abundance, healing, and wisdom. |
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Megan McMurdy | Broken Like Me
mcmurdyart.squarespace.com This mug is number three from thirty mugs from my culminating project at GWU. This mug flew off the potter's wheel while I was trimming it, which resulted in the oddly shaped lip. Once my initial irritation subsided and I looked at the mis-formed mug for a couple minutes wondering how I could "fix it". I noticed that though the mug's form was atypical, it was still functional and really did not need to be "fixed". This mug could still be filled up every morning with my cup of coffee. I feel like a lot of us may feel like we have fallen off the potter's wheel once or twitch this year, but we still have the ability to pause, honor the experience, and accept our uniqueness to fill ourselves up. |
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Julie Merchant | Celebration Cloth
Acrylic paint and fabric medium on 58” fabric circle This celebratory table covering was inspired by a love of cloth table coverings. It was in an audacious act (for me) to let an unplanned array of symbols of celebration - flowers, hearts, balloons, butterflies, spirals - happen colorfully on this cloth. Looking forward to a future where we can pull out this cloth and gather with loved ones to celebrate the next milestone, an end to the pandemic-related challenges, and life. |
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Julie Merchant | Opening a Way Forward
Watercolor and hot foil on paper 10” x 10” This mandala bloomed out of participating in the virtual 2020 American Art Therapy Association Conference workshop: Mandalas for Clinician Self Care: Using the Sacred Circle as our Guide. The gently led guided meditation invited a connected yet private space at home where the magic of art making created a space for healing and opening which was greatly needed. |
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Anna L. Mills | Sending Love (From a Distance)
www.havenhealingart.com This painting was created as a meditation to generate loving feelings during a time of uncertainty and anxiety; the circles of warm colors contain and elicit comfort and reassurance, as the outward projection of the feeling aims to reach beyond the canvas to send love to others in distress. |
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Karen Montgomery | Bridge Beyond Covid
Paper collage, oil pastels, & watercolor Learning of a serious new health challenge during Covid, artmaking helped me focus on priorities, face my fears, retire as planned, and believe my future was golden. |
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Karen Montgomery | Covid Wabi-Sabi
Thrown ceramic bowl, epoxy, gold dust The ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi ("golden repair") brings beauty and strength to broken vessels, a metaphor for healing and recovery from adversity. I honor the broken parts of myself, now stronger, more resilient, and beautiful, because of my imperfections! |
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Stacey Nelson | Grief During a Pandemic
This is a page of an altered book I completed during the 2020-21 school year in reaction to my experiences as educator and art therapist in a special education setting. |
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Flora Papadimitriou | Disrupted. Discouraged. Reframe. Rebuild.
While driving around one day last summer, I began to think about the ways the coronavirus had brought about different trauma responses and how we might cope with COVID-19. I came to realize I have gone through a variety of phases as I dealt with this pandemic. Initially experiencing a sudden disruption in life, then experiencing discouragement as I felt troubled by what the future holds and where I fit in amongst it all. However, I then took the time to reframe and took the time of seclusion as opportunity to hit the restart button. I could choose to make this experience a positive one by looking at all the opportunities I now had to explore that I wouldn’t have previously (such as tele-art therapy). And finally, rebuild. I can rebuild my outlook on my experience to find the good in the situation and to move forward with new eyes as I excitedly explore all the possibilities I had laying before me. |
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Susan Ridley | Regeneration
24x36 Mixed Media www.arts-health.com Regeneration represents transformation and healing of trauma through artistic expression. 2020-2021 was a year of traumatic experiences, from political and social unrest to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the pain and fear that the year provided, it was also a time of reflection and introspection. The canvas has been slashed to represent the trauma of wounds, which are now in the process of healing through the use of crystals and creativity. Introspection provided a foundation from which to rebuild what is most important in life, away from all the hustle of day-to-day distractions, revisiting core values and beliefs. The process of moving back to a new "normal" is an opportunity to embrace a more simple way of living in harmony with nature. |
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Susan Ridley | Oil on Water
4” diameter Fiber Art Oil on Water highlights the dangers of pollution and the damage created by industrialization. 2020-2021 was a time of turmoil and upheaval, not only through death and disease, but social and political unrest, and the real dangers of climate change. The destruction of natural resources, extinction of wildlife and insects, inequality and discrimination, and the constant drum beat of war means that we must change or be doomed. The pandemic brought the world to a standstill, closed borders, limited travel, and forced isolation. During that time, the water and air was cleaner and wildlife reclaimed their territory. Amongst the trauma, it was a time to evaluate what is most important and a second chance to change our course. |
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Diana Sabados | Power Threat
www.mosaictherapyservices.com I created this response art piece while amid the global pandemic during the height of the racial justice protests in a politically polarized election year. As a white female involved in the education and supervision of, and therapy for, individuals with varying heritages, races and political beliefs, I found that intense emotions permeated every interaction and every fiber of my being. I was co-teaching an Art and Diagnosis class at the time, using the Power Threat Meaning framework to consider the links between wider social factors such as poverty, discrimination and equality with traumas and the resulting emotional distress and reactive behaviors often pathologized with a diagnosis. I experimented with asking the questions that summarize the main aspects of the Framework: “What has happened to you? How did it affect you? What sense did you make of it? What did you have to do to survive?”. The resulting image captures the raw, internal turmoil I was experiencing as I was attempting to make sense of my own reactions and hold space for those with whom I was interfacing. Parts of myself that carried feelings of rage, shame, loss of control, self-doubt, fear, anxiety and uncertainty are represented. By slowing down, noticing what emotions were showing up for me and then externalizing them on paper, I was able to facilitate my ability to access compassion for them and find calm within the storm. |
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Nina Salzberg | Missing
www.ninasalzberg.com IG: @jazzy_cat_studio This piece was made using magazine collage images and pen, and was created in a virtual Art Therapy peer consultation group I host once a month. The past year has opened my eyes to the parts of myself I have been missing or neglecting - one of those parts being the Art Therapy community. Not only does this piece represent the parts of myself I was neglecting as a result of day-to-day stressors, but it also represents reconnecting and forgiving those parts. An embrace to the parts of myself that quarantine shined a light on. |
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Nina Salzberg | Acceptance
This piece was created using oils pastels and words from a magazine. Ever since my teenage years, I have struggled with anxiety and a fear of the unknown. This past year has been a breeding ground for my anxiety, doubt, and questioning. It has also led to an increase in perfectionistic thinking. However, this past year has also provided opportunities for growth, self-reflection, and acceptance. Using oil pastels, smudging and scratching allowed me to challenging the perfectionistic side of myself - much like I challenged myself to sit with my anxiety, fear, and doubt over the past year. It was in this place of murky colors where I found acceptance. |
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Ruth Stenstrom | Pandemic Time Zone
www.ruthstenstrom.com Pandemic Time Zone is an iPad artwork using ProCreate. It represents my malaise, artist blocks, indecision and lack of direction felt during the Pandemic with an added playful touch of quirks and whimsy that pop up when I go to my "art brain" for ideas. I experienced the pandemic as a period similar to farmer's field purposefully lying fallow for a period of time. On a good day I will allow for frustration and the "detritus" of past "failed" projects to miraculously float away and create the ground for new ideas to emerge. I have invested a lot of time and self-consciousness in my painting, using the iPad to sketch with a "Magic Pencil 2" has become a way to be free of my old ways and to explore new processes of doing artwork. |
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Ruth Stenstrom | Pandemic Poster Collage
This poster encapsulates aspects of our lives in 2020. Three of these photoshopped posters were from photographs taken pre-pandemic travels: in Venice at a boat stop (Anti-Social Distancing), Granada, Spain (Modern Living) and Basel, Switzerland (Change of Plans). "Modern Living" exemplified to me how a simple artistic intervention (as one professor called graffiti art) can utterly change the meaning of an image. While done in Spain, this image has a more international context, but the social protests of 2020 and the need to be masked for public safety, combine to make it an even a disturbing symbol for the crises of our time. The "Mindfulness" image was a photo of a DC blue poster celebrating smoke free bus stops. It was taken when I emerged with trepidation on one of my first short, masked walks outside of my apartment to a nearby park last April. The serendipitous reflection of the trees emerging from young girl's head enhanced its meaning of breathing smoke free. It speaks to the possibility of bringing nature and freedom inside one's head while one is isolated and feeling alone. It has been a message to me to slow it down, dream, breathe, take time to mediate, and nourish my inner artistic resources. |
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Tyler Strusowski | Untitled
This artwork is an untitled mixed media on canvas measuring 48”x72”. It was inspired by Rembrandt tulips and poppies blooming in neighborhood gardens, as the shutdown started in Spring when I started the piece. Prior to the shutdown, I was an art therapist in a community mental health setting where I ran art therapy groups in an open studio format. That is where I met a woman who was also a mixed media artist of whom I became close to and had great respect for. When the program was open, she attended my groups regularly and we would often work on art together side-by-side in the studio. Shortly after the shutdown started, I had learned that she died. As I worked on this piece, it took on new meaning as I grieved her death. I am relatively new to the field of art therapy and she was the first client of whom I was close to that died. As I created this art, I was able to work through my anger and sorrow, and the realization that I will never see her again. |
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Tally Tripp | 8 Square
www.tallytripp.com These eight squares are a small sampling of a larger series of embroidered textiles that I began hand stitching while in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. The simple act of mindfully sewing these pieces with “slow stitching” provided an important, creative outlet for managing stress during a difficult year. Each square integrates layers of fabric, some that I gathered from travels, others that were donated, and some that I hand painted or dyed. The individual squares were pulled together in an intuitive process, highlighting organic shapes and harmonious colors. They are embellished with a range of simple embroidery stitches and fancy threads. My hope is that each colorful square will offer the viewer an opportunity to reflect upon the idea of resiliency and the healing power of the arts. |
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Mindy Van Wart | Hospitality
At times resiliency is about clinging to islands of clarity in the ocean of chaos. This saying, inspired by the words of Valarie Kaur and Sean Watkins, has been such an island for me. No matter how my biological family or my country may make Others of our fellow humans, I choose to become a person that sees all my neighbors as family. Here, I appropriate the pineapple, a symbol of hospitality, to signify a more radical hospitality. |
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Rebecca Wilkinson | Mel’s Doggies
IG: @rebecca.a.wilkinson.3 The apocalyptic feel of being on lockdown during COVID made me want to tie up loose ends--if this was "the end", I was dammed if I was going to leave a bunch of half-finished projects undone. Doing art seemed more important than writing or fixing things the house. I felt especially compelled to finish all of the paintings that my artistic perfectionism had kept me from completing. One painting that has been in the works for 10 years was one my cousin asked me to do of her dogs Porter, Cider, and Stout (she likes beer). Not surprisingly, my cousin cried when she got it, but she also laughed with dark humor that all of the doggies in the painting are now dead. I’m happy with the painting for its own sake but even more gratified that I get to check that painting as done! |
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Rebecca Wilkinson | Pointed Agave – Blue and Orange
COVID was like a gauntlet to the dormant professional artist in me. If this was the end of times, what would I do in my last days on earth? I didn’t have to do art--no one else cared. But I decided I would really see if I spending more time doing art gratify me the way other things like doing art therapy, writing, watching bad murder mysteries, etc. could. I hadn’t painted on large canvas for years but got commissioned to do a big mandala for a colleague and decided to rise to the occasion (I almost chickened out). After wrestling with teaching myself to paint that size again, it turns out I do truly enjoy being in my artist self and thank COVID for pushing me to answer that question for myself. |