Page 127 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

products with low “dynamic” and high “movement” or vice versa have more “variation”. Art therapists largely agree on the importance of observing this aspect of art products to assess client mental health. Future research could address operationalizing “variation” to investigate its relationship with mental health.
In summary, the relationships between formal elements, positive mental health, and mental illness show that art products are indeed associated with aspects of positive mental health and mental illness. The classic assumption of art therapists is in line with this. This implies that the lack of reliability and validity of existing art therapy assessment instruments is not due to the absence of such a relationship or to incorrect theoretical assumptions, but to inconsistent operationalization or weak study design.
Implications for clinical practice of art therapy
Despite the ongoing discussion about how to interpret the formal elements in art therapy assessment, most studies seem to agree that formal elements are related to how clients make art products (Conrad et al., 2011; Gannt, 2001; Hinz, 2009). In previous studies, this assumption has been specified using the concept of “material interaction,” which refers to the art making process and the clients’ interaction with the art materials (Pénzes et al., 2014, 2015). In these studies, it was conceptualized that material interaction was reflected by the formal elements of the art product and related to mental health. The significance of the combination of “movement” and “dynamic” might imply that these formal elements reflect the clients’ art making, i.e. the amount and kind of movements that clients make when interacting with art materials to create an art product.
The “dynamic” and “movement” of the art products and “movement” of material interaction can be linked to Stern’s (2010) concept of “forms of vitality,” which refers to the forces and sensations linked to the movement that creates forms. Stern stated that peoples’ health could be evaluated based on the vitality that is expressed in their almost constant movements. This implies that formal elements can be considered as manifest visual forms of vitality and that these formal elements in art products reflect mental health and mental illness.
Further research is needed to investigate the possible relationship between “dynamic” and “movement” in clients’ art products and clients’ “material interaction” in art making. For the time being, these two formal elements are observable and visible aspects of the art product. This
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