Art: What is Art Therapy & How Can it Help Me?

We all experience stress in some way or another, whether it’s a healthy type of stress that helps one be motivated to work or it’s the type of stress that affects one's mental health in a bad way. One of those stressors could be one’s personal past experiences or could be some recent events. I’ve been looking into and focusing on the topic of Art Therapy as a way to relieve that stress and cope with it artistically.

I would also like to believe that art therapy could be a helpful way to further explore your subconsciousness through the practice of art. Art is usually interpreted as the making of a formally polished masterpiece using paints on a canvas. While therapy is often recognized as sitting down with a counselor and speaking what’s on your mind. 

Instead of that idea of sitting with a therapist, which isn’t always a preferred method of relieving stress, you could choose the alternative that is art therapy. This allows you to indulge in a pleasant conversation with close friends or to vent about something that’s bothering you while still subconsciously making art. Of course, the artwork created might not be perfect but that’s the overall idea, not focusing solely on the finished product of art but focusing on the interaction and process of creating something. 

Art also isn’t only based on using paint as the main material, there’s a whole variety of materials that can be used to create art and most of them can be a combination of the materials to create art.

Overall the conclusion of both studies shows that whether one chooses to engage in an open art studio or stay indoors and fill in a coloring book can relieve stress. Although the open art studio shows more significant improvements in one's mental health and creativity. This conclusion was made possible by the studies showing great results of one's mood increasing, reducing anxiety and stress. 

The researchers invited a group of healthy adults to the open art studio to engage in art therapy and another group to engage in individual coloring sessions. They tested the participant's moods with a standardized survey before and after the art-making sessions. Some of the people in the individual coloring sessions were filling in Mandela coloring sheets while the other group was making original artworks with different kinds of mediums. 

What they found was both types of art-making can reduce stress, but creating original art made a bigger impact because it’s something we made from our own imagination and creativity. That being said, it also depends on one's interest, creative abilities, and what they’re most comfortable with. One might prefer to stay at home and not join in group activities while others might be on the more social side and prefer to join in group activities. 

If you want to utilize art for reducing stress, a helpful start would be to know what art is. Take a moment to think about what represents art in your mind? Once you have an idea of what you think art might be then in my next paragraph you’ll learn more about what art can be defined as.

Essentially art is known as the expression of human creativity and imagination displayed in a visual form of some kind. Art can be made on or from many different surfaces or papers and mediums. Medium is a term commonly used among the discourse community of artists alike and it means the materials from which artworks are made. Art also has many forms which provide more creative outlets for those to experiment with; some of those forms are Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, Literature, Theater, and Cinema. 

I feel that anyone can be a creative artist, as I mentioned in the introduction, “the artwork created might not be perfect but that’s the overall idea, not focusing solely on the finished product of art but focusing on the interaction.” The intention of creating something using your imagination. 

According to another research article, the process of making art offers a bridge for a deeper connection with one another and leads to visualizing our subconscious. 

Coloring books - could also inspire creativity, available to anyone of any age, world widely available - has one goal that is to color in the page

I feel that anyone can be a creative artist, as I mentioned in the introduction “the artwork created might not be perfect but that’s the overall idea, not focusing solely on the finished product of art but focusing on the interaction.” The intention of creating something using your imagination.

If you’re feeling inspired to start getting the materials for creating your own art pieces or filling in a coloring book, here’s a simple guide on how to get started! One way to start is by finding an artist that inspires you the most, find some artworks they’ve done that you find interesting or inspiring. 

Some particular kinds of art forms that are best to go for if you’re just starting would be Coloring, Sketching, Painting, and Clay modeling. Clay modeling doesn’t have to be the complicated stuff that needs an oven to harden the materials, it could be something quick, simple, and fun like air-dry clay. Sketching is using graphite pencils of any kind and drawing images that way, this can be either quite difficult for some people or can be fairly easy depending on the medium that works for you.  

Coloring this is a rather easy type of art to quickly get started on, the supplies that are required for this would be coloring pencils of your choosing. Crayola is a good start or a higher quality brand to go for would be Prismacolor. This type of art doesn’t require a whole lot of skill sets, some practices are easier than others, for example, a coloring book is a simple and therapeutic task in comparison to creating something of your own. 

As for Painting, this requires some skills and can be quite messy if not used appropriately. The best way to get started if you are interested in painting something would be to first have paint supplies. The primary color set is Red, Blue, Yellow, White, and Black; These colors in particular can be mixed to create all sorts of color combinations. 

Next, you will want paintbrushes of your choice, along with two cups of water they don’t have to be entirely filled to the top - halfway should be enough. One cup will be for warm colors such as Reds, Oranges, yellows, and white while the other cup will be for the cool colors such as blues, greens, purples, and black. 

It’s also recommended to have some blank canvases to get started on, paper isn’t the best material to paint on. You will need a paper towel or some paper below your canvas so as to not paint on the surface below your canvas. Clean up is just as important and complex as setting it up; brushes need to be washed with soap and water, the painting might need a safe space to dry on, and don’t forget to dump out your painted cups of colored water - those will not be tasty if you have mistaken them for a drink!