Befriending Ghosted Feelings Through Drawing. Brianna.
Brianna and I connected a few years back through our mutual interest in supporting older adults through art therapy interventions. We had lengthy discussions at the time around the value and witnessed benefits of supportive creative engagement for those with cognitive impairments and dementia. I remember Brianna’s warm, gentle, and compassionate approach as she discussed her experiences with the Alzheimer’s Society developing programs and facilitating art making experiences to support sense of self (for aging clients whose lives have been forever impacted by this degenerative disease). She now continues her art therapy work supporting children in her private practice in Kitchener.
In 2016 I attended Brianna’s CATA-OATA conference workshop: “Telling Life Stories through Comics” (about her work with marginalized, homeless and at risk youth). She provided an informative workshop, facilitating playful and engaging art directives for us to experience. Brianna demonstrated the benefits of sharing personal narratives through the creation of comic book art and sequential drawing, and highlighted how a sense of mastery, artist identity, and connection to self could support the participants in many other areas of their lives. Reconnecting with her comic book roots during the Pandemic, Brianna simply and powerfully captured one hundred emotional states of being and began posting these ‘ghosted feelings’ drawings on instagram. I continually looked forward to seeing the next emotion and how she managed to capture (often with such whimsy) each particular ‘feeling state’ in her sketches. I am sure these wonderfully expressive images will resonate with many! Thanks for sharing your story and art Brianna.
Brianna’s Story:
Hi! My name is Brianna Kestle. I’m an Art Therapist working in private practice with kids; an artist who loves drawing, painting and printmaking; and a human who lives with chronic illness.
Why Make Art.
I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the kind of art that brought me joy when I was a kid. When I talked to my mom about it, she told me that I loved to just sit and write and draw. I was not surprised to hear this at all, since seeing the world through writing and drawing (whether mine or others’) is one of the things that makes me feel most alive. I remember getting in trouble in kindergarten for spending so much time chilling with my Mr. Sketch markers rather than socializing with other kids.
‘Joy’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
I would repeat the things I had learned, endlessly practicing my handwriting and drawing about my experiences in school and interactions with other people. It wasn’t until recently that I made this connection between my own art process and learning. It was, and still is, a way for me to process, integrate and solidify the things that are important to me.
‘Curiosity’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
The 100 Day Project.
The 100 Day Project is a global art movement, with simple instructions: choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online (source: https://the100dayproject.org/#). I’ve participated before, sometimes finishing all 100 days and sometimes not. For my 100 day project in 2020, I created 75 diary-style mini zines. The process of drawing them was an anchor in my day when everything (especially time) felt really different and disorienting. I used that space to process new information that I was taking in, whether it was the new day-to-day experience of living through a pandemic, doing online therapy for the first time, or summarizing workshops and trainings that I attended.
Zine Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
100 Days of Ghostie Feelings.
When it was time for the 100 day project to begin in 2021, it felt really hard to come up with an idea. So I leaned into the community aspect of the project and used a poster created by my friend and fellow Art Therapist Arielle Bush. You can check out her work via the links below and buy your own fillable poster. I instantly saw it as a giant feelings chart, which is something I use with almost all of the kiddos I work with as a way to check in with their feelings during art therapy sessions. It felt familiar and comfortable, which I desperately needed in my creative practice this year. It offered me the same thing that I hope to offer my clients when I invite them to create from a prompt or directive: a sense of safety and structure. From there, I could bring my own interpretation and authenticity to the process.
Art Credit: Brianna Kestle + Poster Design Credit: Hoto Art Therapy
The Process.
The ghost characters in the drawings emerged naturally from a pattern I was drawing one day. When I saw them, they felt very authentically ‘me.’ I loved drawing them and it was really fun to bring them into this project - it was like I got to bring part of my genuine self in to collaborate with Arielle’s idea.
‘Sincerity’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
My art process usually started with researching the exact meaning of each emotion - like figuring out what exactly the difference is between annoyance and vexation. For each feeling, I created about 2-5 drawings to try and capture it as simply as possible. One of my favourite parts of the process was collaborating with my partner, Andrew, on some of the drawings when I got stuck. I would create a bunch of drawings and ask for his opinion on which one communicated the feeling best, and I learned more from hearing his interpretations and experiences of the emotions.
‘Roughs’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
‘Roughs’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
Reflections and Connections.
‘Patience’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
Before I started writing this, I didn’t understand the connection between the way that I use art to learn, and this project. But I’m realizing now that I chose to do this project during an epic year of learning about my own feelings and my relationship to them. It can be easy to ghost your own feelings - I often don’t even realize I’m doing it. I’m in the process of learning how to give my feelings their own confident, assertive voice - even when it’s scary. And this project was the beginning of learning and understanding this for myself.
‘Wonder’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
I learned a lot about the subtleties and nuances of emotions while I was working on this project. I had originally intended to use the circles on the poster as emoji faces, but I ended up deciding to use them as a frame to contain an image. This worked out really well, because as it turns out, some emotions have the most meaning when they are in the context of a relationship between two people (or ghosts). Sometimes, I needed a friend or a scene to tell the story of a feeling.
‘Kindness’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
One of my favourite things about this project was finding ways to show so many different emotions and have them not feel scary. I wanted to show a huge range of feelings as approachable, and even tender. I hope that when kiddos see these drawings, it helps them to accept their own feelings without judgment.
‘Loneliness’ Image Credit: Brianna Kestle
As I was creating this project, the audience I had in mind were the kid clients I work with in my art therapy practice. I have the poster displayed in my office, and I love that kids can look at it and see that there are so many different feelings, and so many ways to show them.
Brianna Kestle • August 2021
Follow Brianna.
Instagram • @arttherapybri
Website • www.briannakestle.com
“Art therapy can help kids access those hard-to-talk-about feelings in a safe and nonthreatening way. Art offers a way to approach those feelings differently, to be curious about them, and to handle them gently.”
Follow Hoto Art Therapy. Arialle Bush.
Instagram • @hoto_art_therapy
Website • www.hotoarttherapy.com
• Buy your own fillable poster here: http://www.hotoarttherapy.com/shop
“Explore the full spectrum of emotion with our fillable emotions poster. This fun and thoughtful prompt invites you to make thoughtful artworks in response to 100 different emotions. Take some time to consider how all emotions are important and help support your emotional wellness! Emotions don’t have to be scary and with our emotions poster they can be a ton of fun and a source for deep personal insight and growth. ”
The 100 Day Project. Info.
Instagram • #the100dayproject to see related posts
Website • www.the100dayproject.org
“Ready to get creative? #The100DayProject is a free, global art project. The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online. Every year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of creating. Anyone can participate (yes, that means you!).”