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Date: Friday, September 03, 2010 - 6:00 pm
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Phone:
Art as Therapy: Therapy as Art
Cassie Dennis-Elson is a native of Springfield Missouri who sought out her Master’s in Counseling and Art Therapy in 2008. Rachel Nelson, who resides in Kansas City MO, came in contact with Cassie while seeking her Master’s during that same time. Together they have explored their own artistic styles by incorporating various mediums into art therapy interventions. Rachel and Cassie began a journey about finding themselves while learning to help others communicate and feel through the use of art. Cassie Dennis-Elson up-cycles most of her artwork by using objects that already exist and have served some precious meaning in her life. Artwork displayed includes an altered book, an art therapy technique used as a creative journal up-cycled out of a book she read during her early adulthood. The book from her past is transformed into a piece of art that explores Cassie’s feelings, emotions, and thoughts that she is unable to express in words about her mother’s battle with cancer and recent passing. Other artworks included are all aspects of Cassie’s excursion with various art materials over the last two years of her life as she explores her new beginning as an art therapist. What is Art Therapy? Cassie and Rachel are trained counselors who use art as a tool to communicate with clients about their past or current feelings or emotions. Rachel Nelson’s art reflects her quest for inner strength and wisdom. Through the act of repetition and use of media such as encaustic, Rachel achieves a sense of calmness, stability, and balance. Rachel becomes infatuated with an idea or medium until she feels it has been fully expressed through her work. Her “Owl Series” is an example and was symbolic of her emergence as an artist who only worked by night for fear of being seen, hence she became a literal “Night Owl”. |
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