Daniel Davis, LMFT

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Museum: Art as Therapy for Teenagers and Adults

April 26, 2016 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

One of my favorite things to do with my mother – who was born in 1934 – is to go to the De Young Museum which is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, USA.  My mom loves to go to exhibits with art from all parts of the world.  My mom and I as well as other friends have seen sculptures of sub-Saharan Africa, American artists, art of the Olmec people of ancient Mexico as well as European artists – Mattia Preti, Domenikos Theorokopolos (also known as El Greco), Claude Monet, James Mc Neil Whistler (the painter known for  “Whistler’s Mother”), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh – and modern artists, like Keith Haring and Jackson Pollock.

My mom had a series of strokes that began in 2006.  These strokes made it very difficult for her to communicate at first.  I later realized how much she was able to learn and understand when I took her to the De Young Museum.  I asked her if she wanted to rent the device which would allow her to listen to a description of the art.  My mom said, “Yes.”

I pushed my mom in her wheelchair through the exhibit as she listened with her headset.  I would roll her to each painting, paying careful attention to what she said she wanted to see.  At her request, we stopped at virtually every painting for 3 to 5 minutes.  She listened to every recording – the entire recording – about the artists, the paintings, and the history of when the paintings were created.  Often, we would enjoy a delightful gourmet lunch on the patio, looking out at Golden Gate Park.  These visits were wonderful and have been some of my most joyful moments with my mom as we took the time to absorb great works of artistic masters.

Art has the capacity to transform us.  Symbols are very powerful and can affect us deeply.  A movie such as “Schindler’s  List” or a painting, like the “Mona Lisa” moves many people very powerfully.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Just one flash of an image can have a profound effect on our emotions and thoughts.

Silence is also very powerful.  We are often afraid of solitude in our American culture.  Our iPhone or television can drown out silence all day long, all year long.  For a lifetime, we can be cut off from our interior life.  We may wake up at 3:00 in the morning with an anxious dream – sweating.

In silence, we can find our compassion and creativity pouring through us.  Once we thought we would never find creativity, then it comes through us like a burst of fire.  The embers of creativity always lie within us smoldering.  This creativity inside us is just waiting us to notice it and express it.  Join Sue Renfrew in this video and learn how to meditate and contemplate about a painting, whether you are at an art exhibit in a Museum or anywhere else.

 

 

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Filed Under: Art, Blog, Consciousness Tagged With: ancient Mexico, art, Artists, Claude Monet, compassion, creativity, De Young Museum, Domenikos Theorokopolos, Edgar Degas, El Greco, European, Golden Gate Park, headset, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Jackson Pollock, James Mc Neil Whistler, Keith Haring, Mattia Preti, modern artists, Mona Lisa, movie, Museum, painter, painting, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, San Francisco, Schindler’s List, silence, stroke, Sue Renfrew, Vincent Van Gogh, wheelchair, Whistler’s Mother

Collage: Art as Therapy for Teenagers and Adults

September 8, 2015 By Daniel Davis, LMFT 4 Comments

We are all artists.  An artist is often defined in a narrow way.  We see an artist as someone who creates with colors, shapes, music, dance, writing and so on.  Yet each of us creates every day.  Mathew Fox writes, “Our life itself becomes a deep expression of who we are, what we care about, what our values are.   It is our great work.  To survive and thrive, in ways small and large, we depend on imagination.  We call on our wellsprings of creativity to give what we have to the world, to our families, to future generations.”

Much of my life, I must make up as I go.  I need to invent solutions every day, to meet the challenges of my work as well as the conflicts I encounter with those I love.  Our modern era seems to value obedience more than creativity.  We have given up on our creativity and say, “I can’t draw.”  “I can’t paint.  I am not creative.”

When we begin with the end in mind, we are able to accomplish much of value.  Making a collage enables us to translate a vision that arises within us to a concrete form.  It is like making a drawing of a dream image.  I can make a character from my dream a companion by drawing it and putting my dream image up on my wall.  The drawing allows me to remember my dream and how it felt when I was dreaming.

If I have a conflict, I can feel emotional relief when I draw it or express it with images that I find from magazines by making a collage.  I can make a collage of or a vision for my life.  Studies indicate that when we are creative in any way, our body releases chemicals in our brain that help us overcome sadness and depression and stress.

The word collage comes from the French word, which literally means – to glue.  A collage is a piece of art made up of different materials: paper, fabric, wood, photographs, and pictures cut out from magazines or calendars.  These materials are glued to paper.

In this video, Sue Renfrew, M.A., demonstrates how to collage.  Get out your paper, magazines, scissors, and glue.  Join in the joy of creation.

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Filed Under: Art, Blog Tagged With: Artists, collage, collage defined, creativity, Mathew Fox, Sue Renfrew

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About Daniel Davis, LMFT

I create an environment where clients experience their unique significance, authentic empowerment, and profound acceptance and collaborate with clients to identify solutions to their current crises. For more information on how I can help you, contact me today by calling 408-249-0014 or emailing info@danieldavislmft.com. I look forward to speaking with you! Read More…

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Daniel Davis, M.A., LMFT
Counselor in Santa Clara, CA
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