Page 37 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

Six art therapists said this was important information in deciding whether to offer further treatment. Two therapists elaborated on the symbolic meaning of an art product. They assumed that the content of the art product referred to a person, event, fact or experience outside of the art material itself, and the art product only obtained meaning by interpretation. Both art therapists emphasized that the reflection of material interaction in the art product was more important than the symbolic meaning, but they also said this reflection sometimes brought clarity to very rational clients about the process of art therapy and the manner an art product helped to provide insight into what it said about themselves.
Material interaction and art materials’ properties
One main category that influenced material interaction according to the art therapists was ‘art materials’ properties’. The art therapists conceptualized the art materials into the following properties:
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The degree of physical contact. This contact varied along a continuum of no physical contact (e.g., most graphic materials, such as a hard degree pencil), minimal physical contact (such as soft pastel when used with the fingers) or much physical contact (such as the use of the entire hand during finger painting).
The amount of control an art material provided the client. Some materials have much intrinsic structure, such as graphic materials, but other art materials have less or no intrinsic structure, such as water ink. The tools and techniques with which the materials are used influence the amount of control the client has over the material. For example, the use of ink with an ink pen provides the client more control than the use of ink with water and a brush. Therefore, the combination of art material properties and the tool chosen determined the amount of control the client has.
Therapist 7: “In a way, there is a gradation of materials; some are more fluid or invite to physical contact, others such as the graphic materials are more structured and give a sense of control.”
The scope of technical possibilities. Some art materials are more limited in the number of possibilities and techniques than others materials. For example, a hard degree pencil has fewer application possibilities than
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