EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM FOR
ARTS THERAPIES EDUCATION
Art Workshop
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Jenny Butler & Carl Gustafsson
Playing with Memory Strips
In the non-verbal realm conflicting, shameful and painful experiences often dwell that may oppose our longings for creative expression and playful interaction with ourselves and others.
In the workshop Playing with Memory Strips the participants will be invited to create black and white collages (silhouettes) of a memory evoked from a meditative state that will be the starting point of the workshop.
Black and white colour create affect while cutting, tearing and pasting paper gives the artmaker a sense of control (Vance, R. & Wahlin, K., 2008).
The participants will be invited to create a Memory Strip that will include several images through an investigation of a certain memory. The investigation process moves through individual reflection and interplay with others, through movement, voice expression and writing. The memory may widen, deepen or perhaps even change when the black and white collages become eye openers. Finally, the collages may give birth to a new narrative, an illustrated short story with a beginning, perhaps a plot and an end.
At the ECArTE Conference in London in 2009 the presenters attended a workshop held by Noah Hass-Cohen, who worked with silhouettes with patients with traumatic memories. Since then, JB has observed that patients may bring out and give form to painful and/or traumatic experiences, and, at almost the very same moment as the pain is seen and felt, the collages offer opportunity to perceive the painful memory in a variety of perspectives that seem to smooth the gaze of the patient and to help him or her to “see everything in a fresh way” (Winnicott, 1971). CG and JB have offered creative workshops on memory with black and white images as a catalyst to new creative experiences for participants.
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Lek med minnesserier
Konfliktfyllda, skamliga och smärtsamma erfarenheter gömmer sig ofta på en icke-verbal nivå och kan bli till hinder för oss att uttrycka oss kreativt och lekfullt I relation till oss själva och andra.
I workshopen Lek med minnesserier inbjuds deltagarna att göra collage (silhuetter) utifrån ett minne som väckts till liv under den meditation som utgör workshopens början. Svart och vit färg kan väcka affect medan att klippa, riva och klistra papper kan ge bildskaparen en känsla av kontroll (Vance, R. & Wahlin, K., 2008).
Deltagarna inbjuds att skapa en minnesserie som kommer att innehålla flera bilder genom en undersökning av ett speciellt minne. Undersökningsprocessen rör sig via individuell reflection och samspel med andra, genom rörelse, röstuttryck och skrivande. Minnet kan vidgas, fördjupas och till och med förändras när de svart-vita collagen blir ögonöppnare. Slutligen kan collagen ge inspiration till ett nytt narrativ, en kort berättelse me en början, Kanske en intrig och ett slut.
Vid ECArTE konferensen I London 2009 deltog presentatörerna I en workshop som Noah Hass-Cohen höll i. Hon använde svart-vita collage I arbetet med patienter med traumatiska minnen. Sedan dess har JB erfarit att patienter kan ge uttryck för och ge form åt smärtsamma och traumatiska erfarenheter och närstan I samma ögonblick, när smärtan betrktas (i collaget) och upplevs, erbjuder collagen patienten en möjlighet att uppfatta det smärtsamma minnet ur olika perspektiv som tycks mildra den kritiska blicken så at than eller hon kan `se allt med nya ögon´ (fritt efter Winnicott, 1971). Tillsammans med CG har JB let kreativa workshops på temat “minne” där svart-vita collage har fungerat som katalysatorer till nya kreativa erfarenheter för deltagarna.
Jenny Butler
Jenny Butler is an art psychotherapist in private practice in Lund, Sweden. She sees children, teenagers, adolescents and adults. In her work play, creativity and relational perspectives are central.
Jenny has conducted workshops and educational programmes in different settings with the focus on creative and healing processes and is supervising in art therapy and gives art-based supervision in organizational settings. She is a board member of SRBt (Svenska Riksförbundet för Bildterapeuter) and member of the editorial board of Mellanrummet the Nordic Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
Recent Publications
Butler, J. och Borg, M (2020). Med pionjärerna DW Winnicott och DN Stern som vägvisare I den kliniska vardagen – ett långtidsperspektiv på föräldra-barn-relationens betydels för utvecklingen. Mellanrummet, Nordisk Tidskrift för barn- och ungdomspsykoterapi, nr 39, 2020.
With the pioneers DW Winnicott and DN Stern as guides in the clinical everyday life – a long term perspective on the impact on development of the child-parent-relationship.
Carl Gustafsson
Carl Gustafsson is a painter and art teacher. He has exhibited in Sweden and abroad since 1978 and he has been teaching fine art and experimented with creative pedagogical perspectives for more than 40 years. He has conducted workshops in different organizational settings in Sweden and abroad. For the last 20 years, Carl Gustafsson and Jenny Butler have offered visual art workshops and programmes in Sweden and abroad.