A great lecture and conversation about ‘brand essence’ and our professional identity! I left feeling clearer about my practice and although it was a challenge to boil a few things down, it was very helpful. I also see the worth of this in terms of making your practice clear and understandable to a wider audience using only a few words.
Brand – why is it important to us as artists? As Walter Landor said: “products are made in factories but brands are form in the head.”
The following was my response to the worksheet we had to fill out. It was very helpful to do this in a short amount of time as it brought the essence of my practice to the surface:
What makes me distinctive? Why is nobody else doing it?
Although I am not the only artist who work with naturally sourced pigments and art materials and try to keep my work purely naturally sourced and earth-friendly, I would say that it is one of the factors that make my work distinctive.
Not a lot of people work in the same way since the process of finding and processing the materials are labour intensive and time consuming. This is however exactly what I enjoy about it – I find the process therapeutic and leaves me with a sense of connection with nature, with a more quiet mind and more intimately attuned and appreciative of my material.
Intangible: What can I not put into words about what I do?
The emotional and mental state I experience when I: (1) Go for a run/hike in nature (which is my starting point). (2) As I immerse myself in the process of foraging and processing my materials.(3) As I form the clay that I work with and adapt my natural pigments to suit my need – wether that be for a paint or a ceramic slip or a drawing tool. It is this felt and lived experience that I wish to share with others as I invite them to participate.
Single-Minded: What is my purpose?
Helping people and especially the next generation to be more aware of our human need for interconnection with nature, other humans and the benefit of engaging our senses as we create in and with nature. Sensory intelligence is a relatively new field in occupational therapy. This field in combination with mindfulness and art therapy research is informing my work as I explore ways to improve mental health and health in general. The work is open to how it can be experienced by a participating audience.
Experiential: How do others understand or interpret your work?
In my break out room with Anna, she explained how she interprets my work. I was in awe of how well she seems to understand my journey and my heart. She also gave some words that helped me articulate a few things.
Anna: I see your work as important and healing. I see that you are interested in field-work and that you are wanting to invite others to join in experientially. I see that you are a teacher and able to teach technical aspects of practical art along with your new research.
It is as if your work is not about the product/image or even the message but about bringing people to themselves.
I was really blessed by her response and feel like my direction is understood. Thank you Anna! You are an intuitive and authentic peer and I have deep respect for your work.
Meaningful: What is remembered/lingers?
Care. I was introduces to a book called ‘Matters of Care’ by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa which really resonated with me and I am enjoying the read. Her research happens to have a strong focus on human-soil relations. The fact that I mainly use clay as a basis for my art-material (in dry pigment or wet clay form) has created a interest in soil and made me more curious about Puig’s research. I hope to bring this into my work going forward and combine her ecological care perspective with a psychological care perspective. Cornelia Elbrecht is an art therapist who’s work I admire. She wrote: ‘Trauma healing in the Clay field’ which was published in 2013. Elbrecht works with a Sensorymotor approach using clay as a medium. I am excited about weaving research like this into my art practice.
Consistent: what will always be part of me?
To want my art to have purpose. Art as process and therapy keeps coming back.
A desire to help people on an emotional and practical level through my art and art teaching.
Authentic: what makes me honest? Why will they believe?
Honest materials with an authentic motive, drawn from personal experience (my own journey with depression and anxiety) and concern as well as from well researched sources. Offering a solution for balance in a fast paced, overwhelming modern age.
Sustainable:
The materials are sustainable because they are carefully and ethically sourced from nature. My practice is sustainable because of the fact that I need to produce the work in order to keep myself mentally healthy and in balance.
Scalable:
I would like to use the experiments and research of this MA and perhaps incorporate it into a workshop where people can experientially be involved in similar work, add to it and take it into their own practices or communities. I think this can also be an economical and effective way of: (a) Adding to the facilitation of adolescents groups who participate in ‘rights of passage’ type events. I believe this is important as it is this age group that we need to influence in order for them to take forward a culture that care about our planet. (B) Helping people in less privileged areas (especially in South Africa) who are perhaps suffering from mental illness and don’t have access to a professional health care. (C) Even assisting the elderly to manage mild and even severe mental illnesses or Dementia-related challenges.
I have recently thought about the idea of getting my work in book-form. Whether that be a wordless book – featuring my process (drawn of photographed) or even a wordless picture-book that can be read by young and old.
Statement: We were asked to quickly write a short statement:
My art-based research practice looks at the Inner Landscape which is our permanent and most important dwelling place. Drawing from the fields of Eco-psychology, Neuroscience, Eco Art Therapy, Sensory Processing (Occupational Therapy) and Ecology, my work seeks to understand how our modern age, over the past 500 years, have affected the awareness of our interconnection with nature and each other and how this has subsequent affected on our mental-, spiritual- and physical health. With a strong focus on process over product, the work is open to how it can be experienced by an audience on various sensory levels. My practice has developed a dual focus in ‘Social Artivism’: to help reduce the ongoing stigma of all mental health issues as well as to create awareness for our interconnection with nature and with others. My practice seeks to question whether a renewed awareness of this interconnection in the midst of a rapidly changing-, digitised- and fast paced world, can impact our Cultural Worldview and not only increase the chances of saving our living planet but also our selves.