Prompt Three - This is what my Arts based Self Care looks like...

After the workshop I feel inspired. I sift through the collage bits Jacinta has provided and create a front cover for my journal. The process seems familiar but also a long distant memory...I used to decorate all my journals and even make my own books. It feels good to have a cover that invites me to inquire.

Weeks pass and I await the next prompt eagerly, but when it arrives I feel pressured. "I don't feel well" "I don't have time" "I can't make art with a toddler" etc. etc. This is a familiar pattern about making excuses for not dedicating time to my creative expression...gees I wrote a thesis about this theme!

It's been raining and we can't play outside. I brew dandelion tea and rosehip tea, extra strong. I lay out paper and brushes with containers full of the teas and together we make. Alongside each other, collaboratively on the same page and responding to each others marks. "Mine!" "My tea! That's Mummy's". Water soluble pastels go from paper to legs to paper. Tea is washed onto legs and then paper. I respond to her and she to me. I am encouraged by the image of Cath making alongside her children. I let go. I share my expensive pastels and it is okay. I don't have a idea or theme to explore or represent except for allowing space and opportunity for self care.

I cut up an old artwork created in a Creative Art Therapy "open studio" session I facilitated many years ago. These pieces are collaged on the back inside cover. I let go. I move between several images. Working in layers, letting the materials and the emergent process guide me.

My concerns about work drift away. I just stop wondering and the art washes over me like a self care bath. I am immersed in arts process, companioned by my creative being, companioned by my little art child. The tea spills out onto the tiles. Lucky she is wearing her swimmers over her thermals on this cold day. We dance in creative expression. This what is my arts based self care looks like...