Creative Deepening: EFIT Meets Art Therapy Webinar

Hi!

Katie Kjelsaas over at Connections Count is passionate about supporting therapists and offering professional development…and I am jumping on board for the next one.

Katie will be discussing her paradigm (Emotionally Focussed Individual Therapy) and I will be sharing some art therapy interventions that fit beautifully into that process (it will be hands on and experiential)

This is totally for you if you are NOT a creative therapist (Please come along, talk therapists!)

You definitely don’t need art skills! Just the willingness to have a go!

Details:

Monday 21 October 2024

7 - 9 pm AEST

We can’t wait to see you there!


Here’s a little more info:



Mountains and Molehills

‘Mountains and Molehills’ 2024 original. Pencil and pen on paper. 29.7x42cm. Enquire for print queries alanabosgra@gmail.com

I recently jotted a note down in my phone when I was out and about (I usually do that so I can come back later and explore the idea when I have time) and I wrote a brief list of something that bothered me during a social interaction. Here’s the list of the things that I perceived which bothered me:

-Lack of imagination 

-Judgement (lack of or unwillingness to understand)

-Close mindedness

-Falseness

I think few things trigger more frustration and existential sadness in me than encountering these things in others. It is alienating and deflating to be around unwarranted judgement..or comments that are based on untruths…or a severe lack of imagination or willingness to understand another persons viewpoint… all of these are pretty much my idea of a bad time (If I hear comments like “Conservatives are all X” or “Progressives are all X” I immediately sense that no serious reflection or nuance will come out of that person’s mouth… No one is “all” anything and people deserve the dignity of being understood, even if you seek to understand and then ultimately disagree with their view). Anyway, after writing this, I thought about the broader cultural moment and broader attitudes particularly Christians (or not even just us- conservatives, and also at this moment, Jews) are facing. I’ve used the concept of mountains (sometimes perhaps large issues and hills to die on) and molehills (smaller less consequential issues) to have a look at these.

I am particularly struggling over ignorant comments I hear in person and on social media (molehills) that I believe are just false and perpetuate untrue stereotypes; but what do you do when challenging that feels like rocking the boat or being disagreeable? How do you respond when the person who may have said those things doesn’t actually have any awareness of the impact of them? I don’t really have answers to my questions yet. Do you let blatant lies go unchecked? Do you wish the person who said them reflected a little more critically on their point of view? Do you wish they realised their ignorance is hurtful? Do you wish there was even a common ground to be able to have that conversation? Do you wish people in some settings you’re in were not so close minded and hostile towards your faith? Do you actually say something? Do you overlook it and recognise their ignorance might also come from their personal experience and maybe even a place of pain? Do you pray for that person, and remember they are allowed the dignity to be wrong? Do you defend what you believe to be true at the cost of social niceties? Or let it slide silently and let it eat you up..? Is it just a little molehill, or does the series of molehills ignored accumulate over time to feel like a mountain? Unfortunately, I have observed that typically, conservative or faith based people tend be less forthright and clear in addressing these tensions and perhaps it is to our own detriment…

What Is Required To Distinguish Between What Is A Mountain And What Is A Molehill? 

  • Discernment. We don’t need to be reactionary to every single comment or attitude in our culture that opposes goodness, truth and beauty (because let’s face it, whatever ideology opposes God also opposes these things too). 

  • We can dislike and disagree fundamentally with the molehills, but we don’t need to lose sleep over them. For example, I am thinking right now of some of the performances in the Paris Olympic opening ceremony that without question were explicit in promoting a fluid and boundary-less sexual ethic..Pagan ancient Greece, anyone? Actually super on brand for the origins of the Olympics. Not only that, but it was also a fairly explicit inversion and mockery of Christian imagery. I find that distasteful, disappointing, unnecessary, predictable, dull, and not beautiful, but it doesn’t need to be the hill I die on. It’s just the natural consequence of valuing ‘inclusion’ (how you very narrowly choose to define that) over the value of beauty (good art is beautiful), truth and goodness. I already know what I value, and the cultural attitudes being promoted in stuff like that doesn’t change what I already know I stand on and why.

  • Some molehills can be left alone. We just don’t need to be keyboard warriors trying to stomp on every single molehill we come across. If we waste effort kicking over every molehill we see, we become like distracted idiots and are not energised for the proper task before us. We aren’t called to angrily kick over molehills without wisdom. We also just don’t have the time realistically to make every molehill into a mountain.

  • My drawing presupposes the existence of actual mountains. They are there, regardless of cultural gaslighting that suggests there are no mountains, that it’s a flat perfect landscape, ‘you do you’, there is no good or evil, it’s relative…that gentle lull into apathy. That is just not true. There are serious issues to address and hills to climb. Evil is evil because it hurts people, and people matter and have value. There is a uniquely Judeo-Christian philosophical basis for why we believe in the existence of good and evil and why we therefore recognise the mountains (evils worth standing against).

  • Mountain climbers have a unique vantage point in that they have perspective. They can factor multiple ideas into their point of view before making sweeping judgements (not to say judgement as a concept is all bad, it’s not; but making right judgement based on a full picture of the landscape is the aim, not just judgment born of prejudice and ignorance).

I’d love to start some reflection and dialogue on this:

  • what are the mountains people of faith face today, in 2024?

  • What are the molehills? How do you tell the difference? How do you respond to both of these?

  • How do you know what to leave and what to face, address, treat as a mountain? 

  • What strengthens you to face the journey you’ve been called to?

  • What fills you with confidence and hope in the face of maybe many, many mountains?

  • If you have advice for me I am all ears…

    My current thought is to approach the situations that bother me with exactly the opposite of the qualities that bother me eg: remaining curious about someone’s dogmatic point of view… being imaginative about how they came to their ideas… suspending judgement of the person even if I judge an idea (distinguishing between people and ideas) avoiding sweeping stereotypes at all times.. seeking to get to the heart of issues instead of taking offence at what I can see on the surface… continuing to pursue goodness and truth..

    Lani x

On Beauty

I have a thesis and it is this: Beauty is a forgotten transcendental, and we must recall the importance of it again. It is good for me, and good for you. This is of paramount importance, no matter which angle you come at it from: philosophical, therapeutic or theological. The case for beauty can be made strongly from any one of these paradigms.

Enjoying A Sunrise

2024 pencil and pen

I want to suggest that beauty is absolutely everywhere, if we have eyes to see it (the obvious places are nature, like viewing a sunrise, having an awe-inspiring experience, or listening to a beautiful piece of music; a less obvious place we find it might be in the people around us, especially when it may seem buried deep and take work to find it).

Beauty is for all people to enjoy, and it is a deeply theological topic that is best understood in it’s right place: as a transcendental attribute of God (Goodness, beauty and truth being the attributes of God according to particularly Catholic doctrine).

From a theological perspective, beauty is an ‘on purpose’ thing for all people to enjoy. It points us back to the creator and originator of beauty. Beauty is a small taste of the glory of God. This is why cathedrals with yawning ceilings, craftsmanship and amazing stained glass windows just inspire admiration, awe and a quiet “wow” moment. That is no accident. Visually beautiful spaces give us a tangible glimpse of God. Our religious buildings (particularly modern protestant churches) today tend to be practical, functional…made for purpose (buildings are expensive, i get it…) yet…as a result…I think we miss that element of awe and miss the opportunity to reflect and point people back to God’s beauty when our buildings are just….meh. Functional.

“Beauty, by definition, elevates and gives pleasure to the mind and senses. It engages us on multiple levels. We participate in beauty. Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that we are made in God’s image, meaning we were created to be creative.

The pursuit of goodness, the pursuit of truth, and the pursuit of beauty are, in fact, foundational to the health of any community.”
— Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is In The Wind

Ways To See, Create and Enjoy Beauty

I want to have eyes to notice the beauty in other people. Beauty lies in their honest stories, their humanness, their struggles. Humans are just so beautiful, even on their worst day and in their worst moments. You are so beautiful. Humans are crazily complex works of art. Modern science is forever playing catch up to understand the mechanics of the human design. Why not make it a priority to look for beauty in the humans around you? Why not call it forth, and remind people of it when they don’t see it in themselves?

I also want to cultivate spaces and atmospheres that welcome people, and inspire them. Beauty invites participation, and I want to participate by creating more of it. I want my house to be beautiful. To be welcoming. To be aesthetically pleasing. Visually interesting. So, I invest in (cheap) furniture and give it a fresh life and coat of paint, and have fun with designing spaces in my house that inspire.

Why not do that too? How can you make your space beautiful, or welcoming? (Tip: Facebook marketplace is the actual best, and none of the ‘making spaces beautiful’ stuff needs to cost much).

What about drawing a picture- who cares how quality it is? (And..there’s the art therapist in me coming out. It’s the process, the enjoyment, of making art, that can be beautiful, not just the aesthetic quality..bonus if you get both)

My own house decor inspires me to make art

“It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.”
— Vincent Van Gogh

I want to share some recent things that I have found to be beautiful or inspiring.

Book

“Rembrandt Is In The Wind” is brilliant. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in the arts, art history, or beauty. Chapter one is on beauty.


Music

I heard the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah for the first time recently and found it to be such a hauntingly lovely piece of music. Here is an instrumental.

Architecture

I was at UQ’s Herston School of Medicine campus last week and….what a beauty this campus is. Just..inside and out, it is magnificent.

Nature

I’m not good with plant names but look at that magenta colour of this beauty in my backyard. Anyone know what its called? Let me know. But every time I walk past it I admire the colour.

Art

Hugh Sawrey is a 20th Century Australian artist I love. A distant relative on my husbands side (hey, I’m claiming it..lol). What I love is he painted every day people in their every day settings and obviously saw beauty in the people and the landscape. He documented what he saw. I love that.

‘Arrival At The Outstation’

Medium:Oil on Board

Size:21 x 30 cm


So, how can you notice and enjoy beauty today? (view it…make it…cultivate it..appreciate it…make space for it..?)



On Malevolence and Hope

The Choice

“Choose life, that you might live” 

Implies that death can be chosen 

Some choose a kind of living death: 

A malevolence born of bitterness, hate and self destruction.

Grief drove him there deeper, true; 

But the choice was made in the heart of a boy 

And today his old man heart still beats despite his best injections…

His best plans to self destruct

He’s on borrowed time 

And he knows it 

Or does he? With his mind twisted and decaying, who knows what he knows… 

While his heart still beats 

And his lungs stubbornly persist 

The choice is remains 

Life, to let go of the bitterness 

The door is open:

To live.

‘Hand Of Malevolence/ Door Of Hope’ 2024 original illustration.

I wrote the above words about someone I know in the personal realm and I wanted to express the heaviness in my heart for that person.

The artwork, I thought, went along well with it. The idea for the artwork originally came from a conversation in my professional life…someone said a phrase like “malevolence has followed me around” and it sparked the idea to draw this image.

The Merriman-Webster dictionary includes synonyms for malevolence like “hatefulness” “resentment” “vitriol” “ill-will” “contempt” “bitterness” “malice”

I wanted to draw this hand of malevolence as clearly as I could to distinguish it from the door way containing light and hope (even the tree is growing leaves on the side bent towards the light). There is a stark difference between the light and the dark. When we pretend otherwise or water down the differences (for example, we teach that everything is relative/ subjective and there are no obvious metrics for good or evil), we do a disservice to those who have been touched by the hand of malevolence or those trapped in its claws. We effectively deny the destructive consequences of malevolence. We don’t allow the doorway of hope and healing to be opened to them.

The antonyms/opposites of malevolence include: “kindness” “goodwill” “love” “understanding” “beneficence (the quality or state of doing or producing good)”

The question I am wrestling with today is this: how do WE handle it when someone we love has chosen to consistently hang around with bitterness…self-destruction..hatefulness? When they have seen the hand of malevolence beckon and surrendered themselves to it..through a pain, a wound, a hurt, or unhealed ‘life stuff’

What next, when we see the doorway, we see the alternatives, we desperately wish for them to be touched by the warmth of those rays of light….but we are powerless to change the course they are on?

That is a question I don’t really have an answer for. The closest I can come up with is that we must continue being involved in the light- the kindness, understanding, willing the good for them, never giving up hope for them… perhaps those rays of light might reach further than we can see…

Some words I have found encouraging (and artistically useful and inspiring) in the face of hearing and seeing darkness in my personal and professional worlds:

John 3:19-21

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 1:4-5

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.