When I first started creating my fantasy cards I was brought to a space of knowing and not knowing.
The cards originated from discarded art pieces left at my clinical internship site, paper used to test various art materials, and art pieces from my own practice. Cutting the larger art pieces down into smaller 3 x 4 inch cards, the cards became a remnant with physical evidence of being a used art material in the art therapy space. Collecting and sorting the cards engaged my creative process by examining the unique marks along with bringing together different visual elements. Using the marks on each card, different imaginative landscapes emerged. Evolving as a way for me to engage in self inquiry around feelings as an art therapist in training. Each week I developed a different set of cards. Navigating and documenting different emotional landscapes I encounter within myself.
The project idea expanded beyond a method for self inquiry and started to explore the different boundaries of what becomes client art in art therapy. The development of this piece led me to question the ways different art materials emerge in art therapy spaces and when materials used in an art therapy space become client artwork.
Using an art-based research method, the cards inspired a study that led me to examine the history of art therapy spaces and when do materials become a precious art product. In displaying my collection of completed fantasy cards alongside untransformed cards, I complicate the ways art therapists and clients share materials in the art therapy space together. The secondary visual text of different short phrases documents my thoughts and educational reflections from the art making process. The installation of both pieces together examines the ambiguity between knowing and not knowing what becomes client artwork and how the field of art therapy engages in this discussion.