leahpeah,
On your web site you have some pages with your kids names on them but then you dont have anything on those pages. Why? and what is the difference betweem the art therapy paintings and the other paintings? They both look like the same kind.
Francis Lighton from Arizona
Well, Francis, let me start with the first part of your letter: the kids’ pages. I have been torn about putting up stuff from my kids on the internet. On the one hand, they create some really great stuff and I want to put it up there. On the other hand, I worry about there being some kind of backlash that I haven’t thought of. I’m not sure what. I just worry. But, as you can see, I haven’t taken the pages off. So I guess I’m still unsure. I’ll let you know if I ever put content on those pages.
To your second question, art therapy is different in only the name in my opinion. All my art is in some way therapeutic. However, the paintings in the art therapy gallery are specific to some kind of deliberate thought on my part as I was working through some issues pertaining to my traumas as a child and throughout my life. Any art can be used as a way to ‘therapize’ yourself. You only have to have that thought prior and during the making of the piece. Also, many times I’ll look back on a piece and see that it was healing for me to make it and I wasn’t even aware of it at the time. You might want to try it yourself. Just create something out of any medium you’d prefer and give yourself permission to explore your feelings as you do the work. Let me know how it goes.
best,
leahpeah