ExArt Therapists have AGM's

Wow! Another AGM! It's something most people don't even think about, but Expressive Art Therapists are highly-trained people, and they have their own organization, OEATA, which holds an AGM each year along with loads of other networking activities to support their important work. As dozens of Expressive Art Therapists took their seats and the president began to lead their meeting, I couldn't help but wonder if they were all going to analyze the art in my graphic recording! That made me laugh! But analyzing art is part of what they are trained to do, along with encouraging clients to heal themselves through art using different types of materials and approaches. Expressive Art Therapy can help people in all sorts of awesome ways and I think they are amazing. As I was recording, I was marveling at how much they have been reaching out, contacting places where people are in states of physical or spiritual healing, and professionally trail-blazing with established standards that uphold their good work. Yes, they also have a business side. And that night there was a lot of business. So, since I think they are superstars, working in some cases with people who need so much healing, I used the theme of bright stars arching above their logo. Bright stars in a dark night. And because they stitch lives back together, I found I was using the lines made of stitches. The rest of the challenge was just about getting all of the pertinent information I could up onto the paper, and making it seem to have flow, with lots of clouds, convection and a feeling of forward momentum. At the same time, I wanted to have important-looking banners for some of their business announcements, and so the final work has announcement combined with swirl. The ExArt therapists didn't tell me if the had psychoanalyzed my graphic recording or not, but they did tell me they were pleased with the dark star effect because they could see stars and bold lines easily from the back of the room. Several of them posed in front of it, the after-meeting photo! They also promised to have me back next year, so stay tuned! ExArt rocks!