The Nature of Well-Being. April. Susan.Taylor.

Related to our workshop title “Eco-Art Therapy: The Nature of Well-Being” Susan and I have been attending to our own Nature of WeLL-Being Peer to Peer, for the last three years - since the pandemic hit and changed our world. This post celebrates the recent creative, co-teaching and co-learning workshop collaboration with my dear friend and art therapy peer for the Toronto Art Therapy Institute.

Also, great to be re-connecting with another wonderful art therapy peer Taylor as she develops the virtual Eco-Art Therapy workshop for TATI alongside us for later this year.

“…In eco art therapy the processes of making-within, and co-creation-with nature are pivotal and closely attended to. As in all art therapy, the embodied nature of creativity itself can be experienced as an energised or subtle physical experience”

— Beverley A’Court (2016)

The joy of collaboration, and our shared alignments have been given an opportunity to change and to grow through the frameworks of discovery and through relational learning along the way (including the TATI course in person and in situ).

We encourage sharing of individual, dyadic and collaborative approaches to eco-arts within public practice art therapy models. Our facilitations are informed by relational models of art therapy, like open studios and art hives, where spaces are warm and inviting, materials are plentiful and free, and the art making encourages sensory engagement, through imaginative creative play.

Exploring the joys of collaboration with pleasure, as we attentively gathered materials and resources from the bounties of nature, foraging respectfully from what falls to the ground. Students also brought in treasures and contributions to share. Collectively, we honoured nature as kin and our own relational natures, within this caring community.

Our workshop objectives were to create space for rich discussion around the benefits and considerations of eco art therapy. Students were encouraged to reflect upon nature in different contexts: nature-as-materials, nature-as-inspiration, nature as object and nature-as-space. We hoped to accompany students in a deep process of attunement and reciprocity through an exchange between inner and outer expression and to provide opportunities for tangible creative responses when engaging with natural materials.

We explored ways to engage with the four elements….sharing examples of nature-as-materials in process.

Our workshop was framed by two eco-art therapy zines intended to create a contained, holding environment for students reflections and thoughts throughout the day together; to both process and frame learning in connection to personal resilience and connection in community (the me to we). April & Susan

Amazing to be part of this initiative: TATI Zine Archive. View 2023 Student Compilations here.

“Sharing a collection of zines created by students in coursework and research, with the aim of social action by sharing reflections and knowledges with other students in the creative arts therapies and those who are interested in arts-making for individual and collective well-being.”

— Toronto Art Therapy Institute • www.tati.on.ca • 2023

Sharing below OUR stories …The ‘WHO’ as choosing to share what matters most for us in Eco-Art-Therapy, and what we believe/value and what we practice has been co-developed, is collaborative, and is extended into TATI’s Intensives…

Being in nature has always been a way to wonder, imagine, reflect, recalibrate and feel gratitude. NATURE has such soothing qualities that wrap around me with wondrous support and unfolding comfort. Growing up in the GTA, although surrounded by farmland in different directions, we seemed to need to drive to nature. Thankfully due to a very determined mother who organized everything, we travelled with tent trailer in tow across the country multiple times. My awe related to the extraordinary beauty of nature (and our stunning country in general) rooted early in my being during those formative years.

Later living by water whether in Kingston during University or on Vancouver Island after that, established my desire to have an ease of access to natural spaces, affirming the healing benefits of nature in varied contexts for self-care, mental health and well-being. Walks by the ocean, picnics alongside spectacular old growth trees, and natural treasure scavenger hunts became an enjoyable and frequent way to connect with friends while living in BC. Then, back in Ontario working alongside my friend and Horticultural Therapist Jenny for 10 years, amplified my interest in nature as I began to weave eco-art into my long-term care art therapy practice and creative exploration as an artist.

Desperately needing a positive daily creative ritual to sooth and ground my anxious state of being (in the early days of the pandemic) immensely shaped my personal eco-art passion and practice. As a daily routine, I began to spend more and more solitary and gorgeously grounding hours creating with nature outdoors, while later connecting in community through sharing my creations captured in digital photos, with my circle of friends, artists and art therapists.

I don’t know where to start with my appreciation for the relational Nature of Well-being? I experienced the pleasures of growing up on the West Coast, with ample access to the seashore and the changing tides along the coastline, with the arbutus and lush, tall cedars for tree canopy. I have had the privilege of returning to exactly the same spot, along the coast of the Gulf Islands for close to 60 years. There I engage in discovery, exploring tidal pools, observing what the tides bring in while beachcombing, and heeding the erosion of the sandstone rocks with the seas’ impact upon the shore. Witnessing dynamic changes over time, through the creative forces and the destructive forces of the elements, with much to inspire and to live in awe of. Much more to live consciously, in full respect for nature as kin, to honour and actively hold myself accountable for nature’s care.

Sealife and “see life” embedded in the depths of the Salish Sea. So much to take in, to be inspired by and to live in awe and awareness of.

Those early impacts and “awe” in an awareness of place have never left me. Perhaps as an imprint, they influenced my love for experiential learning and for “thinking with materials”, that I took into my own artistic practice, as well as into courses and course development as an educator. The relational Nature of Well-being has been an evolving, ongoing learning process. It has informed my sculpture and also my desire to share sensory-based attunement and a deep appreciation for all the elements, through actions, observations and mindful, sustainable practice.

Much to inspire joy in collaborative co-creativity with April and Taylor, and to nurture within TATI’s learning community.

I have always been very moved by nature, ever since I was a little girl exploring the fields and forests behind my house; catching frogs and salamanders, digging for fossils and gems, and coming face to face with nature's strength and beauty through coyotes, moose, deer and bears. I never shied away from spaces and places in nature, no matter whether it was raining, sunny, snowing, or thundering. Naturally, being in such close contact with nature allowed for me to have spiritual experiences, which only strengthened my curiosity, interest in and admiration of nature and the sublime. Once I started studying art therapy, I wondered how I could introduce nature and nature based practices into my work. I wanted to continue having these experiences and create a space where these experiences were possible for my clients. I wanted to share the healing, awe-inspiring and incredibly moving aspects of nature with as many people as I could.

ECO-ART and Related Posts… NATURE AS INSPIRATION, MATERIALS, OBJECT, and SPACE

SUSAN BENISTON
✿ Inspiration|Exhalation: Breath-Taking-Time and The Space Within Us.
✿ NATURE AS MATERIALS: Reflections from OATA 2020 + Gratitude Hearts. Formed and Found.
✿ NATURE AS SPACE: I Am. Collective Sharing

TAYLOR BOURASSA
✿ NATURE AS SPACE: The Fairy Door Project + Intentionally Exploring Natural Spaces through the Seasons — Canadian Art Therapy Association • TB-CATA Envisage Oct. 2021 + Eco-Art Therapy: Integrating the Environment in Art Therapy Practice • TB-CATA Envisage 2020 p.28.
✿ Eco-conscious Ways to Discard Old Art.
✿ BLOG 〰 Link to Taylor’s website blog