Learning by doing
“Skill is the ability to overcome obstacles…It is the same in anything we attempt. Skill is a result of trying again and again, applying our ability and proving our knowledge as we gain it.”
When considering different therapeutic modalities, art therapists are often asked by prospective clients just exactly what goes on in an art therapy session. How is art therapy different from talk therapy?
Therapy, in it’s ideal form, is a space where a person can learn how to feel safe, authentic, and navigate life with more autonomy. Often that process will include building “skills” or “coping skills”, and in art therapy, that means using creative self-expression (drawing, painting, scribbling, intentionally arranging a bunch of random items you found on the ground) as a means to get there. So, the process of making art can be analogy for the process of navigating life.
Andrew Loomis (1859-1959) was an american illustrator who authored a seminal text on figure drawing titled Drawing the Head & Hands, published in 1956. In it, he asks the artist-reader to consider their motives for learning to draw the human head, as he justifies the importance of values as a guiding compass when setting out on any endeavor.
He goes on to acknowledge the human experience of impatience (haven’t we all just wanted to get it right the first time?) while also advocating for the development of “skill” as a means of “hurdling obstacles”.
Loomis writes, “Skill is the ability to overcome obstacles, the first of which is usually lack of knowledge about the thing we wish to do. It is the same in anything we attempt. Skill is a result of trying again and again, applying our ability and proving our knowledge as we gain it. Let us get used to throwing away the unsuccessful effort and doing the job over. Let us consider obstacles as something to be expected in any endeavor; then they won’t seem quite so insurmountable or so defeating.”
An analogous process of skill-building also happens in the art therapy space. Learning to gain awareness about oneself is invaluable knowledge, and key to practicing the right skills at the right times. We use that knowledge and practice different ways of being with intention, knowing we will make mistakes, knowing it won’t be perfect. When we don’t rent out mental space to perfectionistic and self-defeating thoughts, we have more space to be curious about ourselves, which means more space for self-awareness and permission to try new ways of being. And in time, these new ways of being evolve can evolve into the skills that help us navigate through life.